


COMBAT

by stormy1990



Series: Story Of The Underworld [4]
Category: Hey! Say! JUMP, Johnny's Entertainment, Johnny's Jr., KAT-TUN (Band), KinKi Kids, Kis-My-Ft2 (Band), Love-tune, Sexy Zone, SixTONES (Band), Snow Man (Japanese Band)
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Character Death, M/M, Sexual Assault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-02-27 18:44:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 84,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13254390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormy1990/pseuds/stormy1990
Summary: The war of the Underground was just about to start, but Domoto wasn't the only enemy they had to face. Uproars and losses on their own side made it hard for them to focus on their main problem. Who was going to get in control of the Underground? The fight between the Titanium Triangle and Avernus would decide the fate of the whole Undergorund.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the 4th part of the "Story of the Underworld"  
> If you haven't read the parts CALL OUT, COMEBACK, WAR CHILD you might not be able to follow the storyline.  
> Please also remember that Tokyo Fight Club Chronicles is the prequel of this story and also contents some information needed to understand this story completely.  
> There will be a 5th part REMAINS, it will be the last part of this story!

His bad feeling had proven him right as Kentaro found himself in a really weird situation inside the theater. Of course some people had noticed him, but with so many people around it didn’t seem like they could tell themselves for sure who was a part of what was going on and who wasn’t.

“What do you mean you couldn’t find him?” A man on stage was heard, but Kentaro was still hiding in the shadows of the doors behind the last row, not wanting to drag any attention towards him. The theater itself wasn’t filled, there were just a few people which seemed like guards, the same as outside the theater, but the main meeting was held on stage and Kentaro could see three people in the center with a few of their men close by. The rest of their followers were scattered around the stage and the first few rows.

“We searched the whole area already, we are still searching at the moment, but those two wouldn’t speak at all,” another man said and pointed towards two boys which were sitting on their knees, their hands tight to the back. One of them seemed way too young to be even involved in whatever was going on and while he seemed to try and keep a strong front the fear was visible in his eyes. The boy next to him was older with black hair tied to a ponytail, but his eyes were throwing daggers at everyone in the room.

“Maybe we should lend you a hand?”

“Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. We can handle this alone. You focus on your cover or we have to change the whole plan.”

This time Kentaro finally dared to make a step out of the shadows or more like he was almost pulled out of it as he recognized the voice of the person speaking. He hadn’t heard it that often, but his suspicion was confirmed as he took a closer look at the man on the left and the people behind him.

“What the hell is going on,” Kentaro whispered, his eyes still fixed on Takizawa and the members of the West Tokyo Fight Club.

“I can lend you Reo to search for him, trust me there is no person which could hide from him.”

“As I see he is still doing a good job in keeping you entertained,” the man who held the two boys captive said and pointed to a person standing next to Reo. “Seems like he is taking care of your new pet.”

“Oh what’s with that name, Sakurai? He is not a pet, but my guest. We still need to educate him a little bit though.”

“I really want to see what kind of education needs a metal collar,” a boy with black hair whispered next to Sakurai. But Kentaro wasn’t even following their conversation anymore. He hadn’t even realized how he had ended up walking even further into the rows. The moment they had looked at the other boy, Kentaro’s eyes had followed automatically and then he felt like he was trapped in one of his nightmares after all and never had he wished more to wake up. With his black hair he hadn’t recognized him at first, because after all he had been still blonde when he had left for their travel, but there was no doubt that it was Taiga he was seeing in front of him. A lot paler than usual, thinner as well and with a metal collar around his neck and a chain which was held by the boy they had called Reo. He was wearing black pants and a white shirt, both looking a little bit too big for him.

“What…” Kentaro just shook his head almost in slow motion, his mind not being able to explain what was going on.

“Domoto, you really love games, don’t you?” Takizawa voiced out with an entertained smile.

“If he behaves then the collar might not be necessary anymore.” The man in the middle spoke again. While everyone else was standing, he was the only one who was sitting on a chair, right in the center of the stage. “Maybe he can show you what he has learned so far?”

Taiga’s look had been extremely absentminded over the whole conversation, but now Reo pulled on the chain and he lifted his head, looking confused from him to Domoto.

“Taiga, come here!” Domoto ordered and pointed in front of him. Reo removed the chain on that signal and Kentaro could see how he whispered something in the boy’s ear before he backed off. Taiga’s look darkened on that and he hesitated, but started walking in the end.

Domoto scanned him for a moment and the way his eyes were shining Kentaro felt how he was going to lose his calmness. Then Domoto snapped his fingers, a wide grin appearing on his face when Taiga flinched on that move. There were some low chuckles heard from the members around them and everyone waited for Taiga to move. The boy shot a side glance at Reo once more, which confused Kentaro for a brief moment, because what did he expect from him? Reo just shook his head and made a movement with his hand to the ground.

“Taiga, I want to show our members how obedient you are and not how I have to make you obedient. But it’s your choice which it will be.”

That threat made Taiga finally move and Kentaro held his breath as he finally realized what it was about. But he couldn’t do anything while Taiga sank to his knees and bowed to the front, his hands on the ground next to his head.

“Mhh, he seems really interesting when you are already proud of getting him bow to you,” Sakurai voiced out and Domoto gave him a lopsided sneer.

“Trust me, he is a special case that is for sure, but that makes him so interesting.”

Domoto stood up and approached Taiga with slow steps and when he crouched down in front of him he made Taiga sit up straight by putting one hand under his chin.

When he moved his thumb over Taiga’s lips the boy tensed and wanted to pull back, but Domoto didn’t release him. It was the look in the man’s eyes which made Kentaro finally freak and he got ready to dash forward to drag Taiga out of here without thinking of any consequences for himself.

But before he could even start running there were hands on his clothes pulling him violently backwards. He tried to turn and fight off whoever was behind him, but before he could do so he got thrown to the ground between the rows, so that they both vanished out of everyone’s view.

“Get off-” Kentaro shouted at the other one when he succeeded to turn on his back, but a hand landed on his mouth before he could drag any attention towards them and the next moment he relaxed under the other one’s grip as he realized that it was Aran.

“Shut up or do you want us to get killed?”

Kentaro wanted to speak, but Aran was still not taking his hand away. “I will just let go off you when you swear not to make a scene. One wrong move and we are dead meat, is that clear?”

Kentaro nodded and took a deep breath as Aran released him, but told him right away to not get up. But at least he let him sit up again and they both took a careful look towards the stage between the seats. Kentaro relaxed a little bit as he saw that Reo had pulled Taiga to the side again, now the chain back on the boy’s collar.

“Do you know him?” Aran whispered, pointing at Taiga.

“He is my closest friend. He was traveling with his protector northwards over Japan for quite a while now. I don’t get how he ended up here,” Kentaro replied in a low voice, still not able to connect any dots. And then his look fell on Aran who needed a moment to realize that he was being stared at.

“What?” Aran asked in confusion as Kentaro kept staring.

“Aran, why are you here?”

It was the most obvious question, wasn’t it? And somehow Aran didn’t even seem surprised. It almost seemed like he had prepared to get asked.

“Long story to be honest, but for now all you have to know is that Hagiya and I came here to spy on the Avernus meeting.”

“What is Avernus?”

“Explanations later. We need to get out before the meeting is over or they will definitely find us.”

“What about Hagiya?” Kentaro asked when Aran wanted to drag him towards the backrows.

“We split up earlier, to not drag too much attention on ourselves. He will be fine, no worry.”

“But I can’t leave Taiga behind,” Kentaro said and held on Aran’s arm before the boy could drag him out of the row.

“We won’t be able to get him out.”

“There has to be a way,” Kentaro complained, but Aran pulled him closer on the arm before the boy could even think of a stupid move.

“Stop being so stubborn, I won’t let you run into your own death.”

It wasn’t actually as if Kentaro was surprised by what Aran had just said, because after all he knew the boy good enough to know that this part of his personality was his strongest point. Happenings like before in the training room were just actions he did without thinking, out of rage or other overflowing emotions.

Kentaro wanted to reply something, but suddenly they were interrupted by shouting in the hallway and then the door on the other side of the backrow flung open, revealing some men dragging someone inside.

“LET GO YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES!” The next person they dragged in was heard before he came even in sight and the sound of his voice made Kentaro almost forget about the shock that the first person getting in his view was Ryosuke, his clothes covered in fresh blood on his stomach and barely conscious as they dragged him towards the stage. A third person got pushed inside as well and that was when every bit of color left Kentaro’s face, because Fuma and Kento had been the last ones he wanted to see involved in such a mess.

“No Kentaro stop, are you out of your mind,” Aran scolded him right away as the boy wanted to jump up and dash towards them. In the end Aran had to almost drag him down to the floor once more to make him stop struggling, but at least he wouldn’t try shouting again.

“You don’t understand, those two have nothing to do with this! I have no clue what is going on, but there is no way they did something bad!”

“Kentaro, trust me I believe you, but that won’t change the fact that if we get discovered now that they will kill us right away.”

“So instead I shall watch how they kill my friends?”

That question actually made Aran hesitate for a moment, but what else could they do? There was no time to get help.

“Oh I guess our main guest has arrived after all,” Domoto let out excited as they dragged Ryosuke on stage who shot the older one a hateful glare, despite the bad condition he was in. It didn’t take him long to spot Taiga next to the other one and for a brief moment his eyes went wide, but realizing that he would make matters even worse if they figured out that Taiga and Ryosuke knew each other he looked towards the other direction which gave him the next big shock. This time it was Keito who looked up at him and his condition didn’t seem much better than Ryosuke’s.

“Sou, are you okay?” It was Kento who spoke up the moment Fuma and him were dragged on stage as well and the boy turned towards him with an apologizing look, but before he could reply one of the men holding on to Kento gave him a harsh punch in the stomach, making him gasp and Fuma curse at them, through which he also received a punch.

“No one of you is allowed to speak, is that clear?” Yamashita warned them before he dragged Ryosuke towards Domoto and threw him to the ground in front of him.

The boy let out a pained sound and Keito tried to get to his feet, but of course he was forced down again.

“Well, well. Welcome former leader of the Reapers,” Domoto greeted him with one of his way too honest smiles.

“What do you want you overdressed prig?” Ryosuke hissed at him and while Yamashita got ready to punish him for his rude words Domoto held up his hand, stopping him.

“No need to get violent. He can’t even defend himself. There is no need for a fight.”

“And there is no need for them to be here if you want me, so let them go,” Ryosuke said and pointed at Keito, Kento and the others.

“Mhh, let me consider that request, but for now I will keep them here just to be sure. We don’t want that you run away, right?”

“Of what kind of use am I to you that you went through so much trouble to bring me here?”

“Use? Oh don’t get my intentions wrong,” Domoto explained still as calm as usual, but then he waved at Yamashita who dragged Ryosuke up on his feet and pulled him away from the chair while Domoto got up and approached Reo.

That was the moment when Kento and Fuma also finally realized Taiga’s presence. They had been focused on Sou first and then on Ryosuke, but now they were staring at him in pure shock and Fuma was already making an attempt to break free, but Taiga dared to shake his head while Domoto had made Reo give the chains to someone else and was pulling him towards the chair.

Fuma’s look had darkened a lot, but he got the hint and didn’t move. Kento bit his lip and looked at the younger one apologizing, because even though he didn’t know what was going on, one single look was showing how bad Taiga’s condition was.

“So now that everything went as planned I think we can let this meeting come to an end and proceed with the next step,” Domoto announced , Reo still in front of him. The others had been too busy with focusing on their friends that they hadn’t realized that Domoto had whispered something in his ear while handing him something. Aran and Kentaro had seen it, but they couldn’t see what it was, because Reo’s back was blocking their view.

“Then let them finally go,” Ryosuke tried again while Yamashita forced him down on his knees, but stepped away from him without another word which made Keito tense out of a sudden.

“Oh as promised I will let them go, as soon as the plan is over.”

“Which would be when?”

The moment Domoto spoke again everything happened at the same moment. Keito was up so fast that no one could get a grip on him. Even with his hands tight to the back he dashed forward, knowing that he wouldn’t need his hands anyways, because this was no attack. Reo turned around the same moment, no hesitation showing in his eyes, which actually made Taiga shout out at him to stop as much as he knew that his interference would have consequences later. Domoto just kept smiling, the same tender and calm smile as usual, while Sou closed his eyes and turned his head away and Kento and Fuma were shouting as well. Kentaro heard and saw all of it, but what he remembered the most when it was over was the gun Reo had pointed at Ryosuke when he turned around, the shot that fell the moment Keito had reached Ryosuke and Domoto’s words while he still kept his usual calm smile. “The plan is over with your death.”

But it had come different than they had expected, at least at first sight.

“Keito…” Ryosuke whispered looking at Keito who had thrown himself in front of Ryosuke at the last moment, his back facing Reo. He was sitting on his knees his expression calm, his lips almost forming a smile even though the pain was clearly visible. “You idiot.”

“I clearly am, because normally a move like this is supposed to rescue a person, but at least I can proudly say I tried and I would do it over and over again for you.”

The meaning of his words got clear when a painful cough from Ryosuke instead of an answer was heard. Keito had made it in time, but they were too close to Reo and the bullet went through and hit Ryosuke in the chest.

“Are you forgiving me?” Keito asked in a low voice, his body ready to collapse, but he forced it to stay on his knees and look at Ryosuke.

Instead of an answer Ryosuke lifted his hands and cupped the other one’s face, giving him one last passionate kiss.

“There is nothing to forgive. You saved me in so many ways already.”

Keito’s lips formed a bright smile, but then he collapsed to the front, Ryosuke holding his body in a tight hug. He rested with his cheek on the latter's hair and looked up at Fuma and Kento which were looking at him in pure shock.

With shaking lips Ryosuke formed two words in silence which had definitely been a thank you before he also closed his eyes, both of them remaining in a sitting position, but their peaceful expression told them that it was over.

“No, please no….” Kento let out in a shaking voice and with tears glittering in his eyes.

“Oh I'm sorry, was he a friend of yours?” Domoto asked ironic on which Fuma lost his calm and let out an outraged scream as he ripped himself out of the men’s grip and dashed towards Domoto, but of course Reo blocked his way and he lifted the gun. Knowing that Fuma wouldn't be scared by the threat Taiga was the next to react and he pushed the person holding the chains with so much force that he fell and let go off him. He reached Reo before Fuma and stopped right between them, facing Reo.

Out of reflex Reo lowered the gun, maybe faster than he should have.

“You promised to let them go,” Taiga addressed Domoto before Fuma could think about another stupid move and luckily he remained calm.

“It was him who attacked, right?” Domoto asked in an innocent voice and unfortunately Taiga couldn't deny that.

“We are not here to start a pointless fight,” Kento interfered now. “Please at least let Sou go.”

Sou wanted to protest right away, after all he hadn't fought to be the only survivor.

Taiga turned to his friends, which looked at him not knowing what else to say or do. Suddenly Fuma’s look darkened as he looked past Taiga and when the boy turned around Domoto had approached him, now scanning his expression the same way he always did, Taiga feeling like an open book to him which was extremely dangerous in this situation.

“How about we leave the choice to Taiga?”

That decision didn't just surprise Taiga, but mostly Reo or more like it shocked him and somehow it seemed like he knew more about what that decision meant than everyone else.

Domoto gave Sho and Takizawa a nod on which both moved. They ordered the other members to bring all three boys to the middle of the stage and stepped back without another word. They untied Sou’s hands and Kento pulled him closer protectively, now quite shocked about the burn marks on his neck he hadn't seen earlier.

Domoto pulled Taiga and Reo back to the chair and Reo went back to his perfect poker face while Domoto whispered something towards Taiga which no one could hear. It didn't take long until Taiga shook his head, but without a warning Domoto grabbed the chains which were still hanging loose from the collar and pulled Taiga closer, making the boy gasp. He almost held him in a hug as he looked over his shoulder towards the three boys with an entertained expression. Once more he leant towards Taiga’s ear and whispered something before he turned him around making him face his friends.

Even though they had still not voiced out anything that would show that they knew each other their actions had spoken enough as it seemed.

When Domoto stepped back he snapped his fingers and Reo moved next to Taiga handing him the gun. When Taiga shook his head, his eyes begging Reo in silence to not make him follow Domoto’s order, Reo grabbed one of his hands forcing him to take the gun. Taiga tried to let it drop, but Reo covered his hand with his own and whispered something as well, which made Taiga's expression go from troubled to shocked and then it stopped on something that could be called understanding. Suddenly he stopped struggling and Reo dared to take his hands away.

It was Kentaro who gasped when Taiga lifted the gun on his own, pointing it at the three in the middle. Since the first shot had fallen Kentaro had looked at everything in shock, unable to move, but he wouldn't let his friend hurt Kento and the others. For his own good he needed to be stopped, but as before Aran stopped him.

“Trust him,” he said out of a sudden and Kentaro wasn't sure how to react on that ridiculous statement, because wasn't it clear that he was forced to hurt his own friends and didn't find the strength to break free? How was he supposed to sit back and let him fight his demons alone? He didn't even know what they have done to him until now or how much his defenses had broken. He wanted to help him and pull him out there but before he could decide what to do Taiga pulled the hammer of the gun back and grabbed the gun with both hands to be able to lift it steadier.

“Don't miss,” Domoto said, his expression changing to highly entertained when Taiga gulped and closed his eyes for a brief moment.

Domoto turned around and went back to his chair and Reo lifted up his hand to Taiga's once more, forcing his arms into a lower position before he left his side and stepped next to Domoto.

For a while everyone froze, but then Taiga’s look hardened and a weird determination showed in it before he looked at Kento who stared back at him with wide eyes.

“Forgive me,” Taiga voiced out in a shaking voice before he pulled the trigger, making his friends flinch and one of them falling to his knees and that one was Fuma.

“FUMA!”

Kento was down on his knees next to him right away. The younger one held his hands pressed to his stomach, but his eyes were fixed on Taiga who had lowered the gun and stared back at him with empty eyes. It almost seemed as if he desperately tried to not show any emotions, like he was wearing a mask.

Fuma gasped and leant even more to the front, blood leaving his mouth with the next cough.

“I think we are making good progress,” Domoto said with a satisfied smile while the other members seemed highly entertained by what was going on. Just Reo kept the same neutral expression as Taiga.

“Then I guess I can keep my promise, you are free to go.”

That actually made Taiga's mask fall for a moment and relief showed on his face before he looked up at Kento. There was no need for words, Kento understood right away and told Sou to help him lift up Fuma. The boy was losing a lot of blood and was definitely about to lose consciousness, but for now they had to get him out somehow.

“The meeting is officially over.”

The announcement was made when they had already reached the doors at the end of the theater and dashed outside not losing any time.

Kentaro looked after them for a moment before he looked at Taiga again. But the boy seemed to have shut himself in his own world as he stepped back next to Reo and handed him the gun.

Seeing him like that made the blood in Kentaro’s body boil, but he had finally realized as well that for now there was no way to help him.

“Let's go,” Kentaro announced to Aran’s obvious surprise. “We have to help where we can.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Where the hell are we supposed to go?” Sou yelled at Kento in panic.

“For now as far as possible away,” Kento replied while carrying Fuma almost completely on his back, which wasn’t easy, because the boy was extremely heavy. “Fuma, talk to me! FUMA!”

“Stop yelling at me I'm not deaf,” Fuma replied in a weak voice his eyes barely open.

“Then keep talking to me or to Sou, but don't fall asleep!”

They passed around the second corner, the theater finally out of sight when they heard fast steps behind them. Kento stopped with a low curse, but then Sou dashed back to the corner taking the two boys passing around it by full surprise as he jumped at them ready to fight them off.

But one of the boys blocked his attack right away and wanted to throw him to the ground, but the other one stopped him.

“Don't hurt him, we are not here to fight, but to help.” The other one explained.

“Kentaro…” Kento let out in disbelieve. “What are you doing here? What is going on? Taiga, why is he…”

“Kento calm down, explanations later!” Kentaro soothed him before he walked up to him, followed by Sou. Aran remained on distance for a moment longer, observing them. “Let's bring Fuma to Kamenashi for now. Their territory is the closest by.”

Kento nodded and let Kentaro help carry Fuma. The boy looked up at Kentaro for a brief moment and then he realized Aran’s presence, but Kento urged them all to hurry his focus completely on Fuma’s condition.

When they reached the Exposers’ hideout after a tormenting time of dragging Fuma through the streets, they were lucky to find some members which remembered them and they helped them right away, leading them inside the hideout.

One member had already entered before them, letting Kamenashi know of the situation and as they entered the main room Kamenashi was already shouting at someone to get his medical supplies, while he helped Kento to put Fuma on a table.

Kentaro and Aran had stepped back a little bit, giving Kamenashi the space he needed when one of his members handed him the medical supplies. Kento helped Kamenashi as good as he could, cutting Fuma’s shirt open and assist him with the tools, even though it was such a precious person he was treating. Sou was standing a little bit in the back as well, looking at Kento in astonishment how he could still handle the situation that calmly.

“Kentaro?”

It took the boy some time to realize that no one of the persons he was looking at had addressed him, but it was still a familiar voice. He turned towards the person who had spoken and froze in complete shock. A shock which resolved in seconds and turned into rage.

“What are you doing here?” Kentaro almost hissed at Ueda who had been maybe in a meeting with Kamenashi before, but Kentaro didn’t even care for the reason for that. The only thing he wanted to know was why he was here and of all things with Taiga being in that fucked up situation.

Next to Ueda two boys were standing, but they stood back a little bit, the one with the longer hair, dragging the other one a little bit away. It was clear that he could read the atmosphere and knew that this was no place for them to interfere.

“Long story to be honest. But your situation is more important. What happened to Fuma? What is going on?”

Ueda wanted to make a step towards Kamenashi and the others, but Kentaro made a few big steps forward, blocking his way and clenching his fists in his shirt to the man’s obvious surprise.

“MORE IMPORTANT MY ASS! UEDA, WHY ARE YOU NOT WITH TAIGA? HOW COULD YOU LET HIM END UP AT THAT PLACE?”

He shook Ueda with all his might even though the latter wouldn’t get out of balance that easily. On the boy’s outburst Kamenashi gave them a warning side glance, but both ignored him. The next moment Ueda grabbed Kentaro’s arms with such a violent grip that the boy let out a pained yelp and was forced to let go of him. Aran got ready to interfere, but the other two boys shot him a warning glare and he remained rooted for now. If they didn’t interfere, maybe he shouldn’t either.

“You saw Taiga? Where? When? Is he okay?” The panic in his voice made Kentaro feel like an idiot. Of course Ueda hadn’t left Taiga behind, there were definitely enough explanations for what had happened. “KENTARO, WHERE IS HE?”

After all the time Ueda had stayed strong for Shintaro and the other boys, he was finally back at his safe harbor. In the middle of his friends he didn’t have to keep his strong front anymore, but getting an outburst in the situation they were in wasn’t helping any of them, even though no one could actually judge him.

“Ueda, calm down, okay? We need to concentrate here,” Kamenashi scolded him and Ueda apologized before he dragged Kentaro away from them and signaled the other two boys to follow them to the back of the room. This time Aran moved as well. There was no way he would leave Kentaro alone with all those people he didn’t know.

“Ow, Ueda. Would you let go?” Kentaro complained eventually and ripped his arm out of the older one’s grip.

“Please Kentaro, I need to know if he is fine,” Ueda begged him, which made Kentaro finally put all of his own questions on hold for now. There were a lot of things they had to explain, especially who the two boys were, because at least one of them seemed almost as worried as Ueda.

“I saw him just a few minutes ago at a Mugen meeting. He is...not fine to be honest.”

“What do you mean with not fine?” Ueda asked, turning paler with every passing second.

“He...I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. He seemed like a complete different person somehow and…”

“And?” Ueda asked impatiently on which Kentaro looked over to Fuma and the others, but Kento and Kamenashi seemed to be able to stop the bleeding after Kamenashi had removed the bullet.

“It was Taiga,” Kentaro whispered, making the other one’s look at him questioning, but Kentaro didn’t want to voice it out.

“What was Taiga?” Ueda asked, but Kentaro avoided to look at him and looked at Aran instead, whose look had turned kind of apologizing, knowing which words he couldn’t form. “Kentaro, this is no time to keep secrets.”

“Taiga shot Fuma…” Kentaro let out almost inaudible, but the way the faces of the people in front of him changed made clear that they had understood him.

Ueda opened his mouth, but there were no words coming out. His eyes flickered to Fuma and back to Kentaro, then to the boys next to him. It was clear that this was the last thing he had expected to hear.

“I’m not sure what is going on, but it was not just Mugen, but also two other troops and...they killed Ryosuke. But it was a boy called Reo who did that, not Taiga!” Kentaro added right away, but the mention of Reo’s name made all their faces turn even darker.

This time he had spoken loud enough so that Kamenashi had heard him and he asked Kento about what had happened, when they got ready to sew Fuma’s wound.

“Is he at least physically okay?” One of the boys dared to ask as it was clear that Ueda would remain silent until he was able to catch up to what he had heard.

“He looked extremely pale and also thinner than usual, but I couldn’t see any injuries, not that I was close enough to say for sure. But he...he was wearing a metal collar…”

That gave Ueda another sting and his eyes grew wide and for a moment it seemed like he got ready to dash out the room, but he seemed to be able to get a grip once more. After all he wasn’t known for reckless moves. Running in his death, because of rage wouldn’t help any of them, especially not Taiga.

“A metal collar?” The boy repeated with wide eyes. “Domoto is taking this shit way too far.”

For a moment Kentaro thought about telling them of Domoto’s move on Taiga, but he didn’t want to add fuel to the fire. Ueda definitely needed some time to calm down and then Kentaro could have a talk with him about the details, after all he wanted to know more as well and he also needed to talk with Aran once more about the whole situation, but for now they had to calculate what was the most important and for now it was definitely Fuma’s condition.

***

“Shoot one and I will let them all go. One bullet in one upper body that is all I want.”

“If you refuse I let Reo shoot and you know that he won’t miss.”

“Hurt is better than dead, just don’t miss.”

Those sentences repeated in Taiga’s head over and over again since the meeting had ended, not that it would change anything now. Domoto had given him the chance to rescue his friends, but the price was losing his friends’ trust. He had seen the panic in Kento’s eyes. What would he think? Were they going to treat him like a traitor if they met again? Would they just leave him behind here without even caring about how he had ended up in this mess? After what he had done, maybe.

It had been thanks to Reo that he had actually succeeded in not killing Fuma. He was sure that if he hadn’t pushed his hand lower before he shot he would have killed Fuma. But after all he was the strongest of them and that was why he had chosen him, even though that wasn’t making the pain less. A numb pain, making his blood freeze and his thoughts getting foggy.

His absentminded state also made him forget for a while that he wasn’t alone until a hand stroke over his hair, once more. The movement had been there a few times already, but Taiga was still unable to even get one straight thought together. For the first time he felt like there was no way for him to bend even a centimeter more before he would break for good and Domoto had definitely realized the state he was in, because right after the meeting he had escorted Taiga back to their room and told him to rest, but of course he wouldn’t leave. Time was an irrelevant factor for now, but as patient as always Domoto sat on the bed, looking at Taiga with a faint smile, while the boy looked to the ceiling as if he wished it could just fall down and crush him to erase the pain.

The next time the hand was back on his hair it remained there for a moment longer before Domoto pushed a strand of hair out of his eye and leant a little bit down to him. Taiga didn’t even react, because alone the fact that he hadn’t even spend Reo a look when Domoto had told him that he was leaving with Taiga alone, made clear that his defenses were down once more and this time in a way more dangerous way.

“You did great at today’s meeting,” Domoto whispered as he moved his hand slowly down the side of Taiga’s face. No reaction. No pulling away, no looking away, not even flinching when Domoto’s thumb landed on the boy’s lips and his eyes burned him with an excited shine. The numbness Taiga was feeling through his own actions had finally pushed him over the edge. Now the question was if someone could catch him in time, but the only person who was with him would push him once more instead of helping him up.

“I like that expression on your face.”

That was definitely not a compliment, because he knew how lost and broken he must look and just a few hours earlier he would have went furious now and yell at Domoto, but even that was something his mind and also his body couldn’t do anymore. Realizing that even though he was provoking the boy there was no move of resistance, the older one dared to move his other and next to Taiga head to be able to lean even closer to his face.

His other hand moved just slightly away and just a second later his lips replaced his thumb on the boy’s lips.

Pushing him away, yelling at him, maybe even punching him was what Taiga would normally do now, but again the numbness was stronger and he moved to the complete wrong direction without even wanting to. He closed his eyes and waited. But of course Domoto would test his limits and without him fighting back Taiga wasn’t even sure where his limits were anymore.

Domoto’s hand moved lower, from his face towards his shoulder and down behind his back to pull him closer and Taiga arched his back to escape the touch and finally a small gasp escaped him into the kiss as if he hadn’t realized until now what he was doing.

Domoto reacted to the boy’s tension with a smart move as he broke the kiss, removing his hand right away and soothing him with his hand back on his hair, but this time Taiga had his eyes open again, giving Domoto an empty but still somehow warning glare.

“You two are so alike. In your eyes the same fire is shining behind that insecurity as there was in Reo’s.”

Was. That wasn’t really something that could calm him down and his mind finally reacted more the way he wanted to as Domoto tried to lean down again. Taiga turned his head away and his body tensed, which was actually a lot better than the numbness he had felt before. Domoto escaped a chuckle on that and he wanted to reach out for his face again, but then there were fast steps in the corridor and a loud knock on the door.

“Domoto-sama!”

On the sound of Reo’s voice Domoto rolled his eyes and moved his hand under Taiga’s chin to make him look up at him once more. “Guess for today I can let you rest.”

The door opened the next moment even without Domoto allowing Reo to come in and the death glare the leader gave the boy made clear that he wasn’t pleased by it. Reo froze in the doorframe, his eyes flickering from Taiga to Domoto before he cleared his throat and tried to keep his poker face as good as possible.

“There is an uproar with a few remaining members of the Reapers. They have found our hideout.”

“And you can’t handle that on your own?” Domoto hissed at him, even though he was smiling. His hand remained under Taiga’s chin, but now the boy’s eyes were fixed on Reo instead who avoided looking at him on purpose.

“I- I’m sorry, I thought it was better to inform you.”

With a long sigh Domoto finally let go of Taiga and stood up. It wasn’t like his steps towards Reo were threatening, but the boy tensed nevertheless when the leader stopped next to him.

“Then let’s go. I hope this was worth disturbing us or I have to make you apologize later.”

That was actually the moment when Taiga would normally give Reo a worried look, but his eyes remained kind of empty. His thoughts drifting back to the scene from before now that he was left alone.

Domoto went out without spending him attention and Taiga needed a moment to realize that Reo was returning his look now. A scolding glare hitting him and making him snap out of it for at least the moment they kept eye contact.

“Get a grip, would you? I don’t care how, but snap out of it!”

Reo had hissed the words at Taiga as low as possible so that Domoto wouldn’t hear him, before he followed after Domoto and locked the door.

It took maybe a few minutes more until Reo’s words sank in completely. But he was right after all. What was he doing? The shock about his own actions had made him more vulnerable than he had thought and while it had been dangerous from the first time he had lost a battle it was way different this time. He was falling into Domoto’s trap without being able to even realize it. Domoto was attacking him from a really dangerous angle, weakening his ability to analyze the situation and keep a focused mind.

That thought finally made him move and he got off the bed and moved towards the bathroom. A focused mind was what he needed most, but for that he had to clear his head and snap out of it as Reo had said, no matter how.

***

“How is he?” Kentaro asked and it took Kento a moment to even realize that he had approached him.

Kento hadn’t moved from Fuma’s side since he and Kamenashi had rescued him. Sou was sleeping on a couch in the corner, just a few meters away from the couch Fuma was resting on. Kento was sitting on a chair next to him, to not disturb his sleep, not that he could be sure that Fuma was going to wake up soon anyway.

“He is better than you were back when we rescued you,” Kento answered with a light teasing tone which made Kentaro smile briefly.

“I know it is not the perfect timing, okay who are we kidding it is the worst timing to ask, but would you tell me how you ended up there? I have the feeling something big is going on with that new troops and all information could help us at the moment.”

Of course Kento couldn’t just snap out of it and get his thoughts organized enough to give him a detailed explanation, but he understood that whatever was going on was going to become the problem of them all. The fight club, the Titanium Triangle, maybe it would even break through the borders of the Underground.

“Can I ask you something first?” Kento asked hesitantly and waited until Kentaro gave him a nod with a curious, but also worried expression. “What do you think about Taiga’s situation?”

That question actually made the boy shiver and he turned his head to look at Ueda, but the latter was talking to Kamenashi while Aran and the other two boys had retreated to the background for now. Kentaro had finally been able to ask for their names in between as well. He still hadn’t had the time for a detailed talk with Ueda or the boys about what happened to Taiga, but he got to hear a rough version, with two more unknown names in it. But with Reo’s name appearing with a warning of how dangerous he was Kentaro still wondered why Taiga seemed so attached to him.

“Kentaro?”

“Sorry,” Kentaro said as he turned back to the younger one. “I don’t know...I just entered the scene a few minutes before you guys arrived so I don’t know what is going on either. You heard what Ueda explained earlier how Taiga ended up there, right?”

Kento nodded, but it was clear that it wasn’t actually that part he was worried about and Kentaro understood, but his stomach turned around the moment he recalled Taiga’s empty stare after he had shot Fuma.

“He...did the only thing he could do to rescue you I guess,” Kentaro let out and got ready to get scolded by the other one, but instead he received a nod. With a thoughtful expression Kento leant to the front and stroke through Fuma’s hair.

“I don’t want to doubt him. I saw the struggle in his eyes when Reo handed him the gun and heard the desperation his voice when he told me that he was sorry. But...I can’t stop wondering how much he can still get influenced when they already got him to take such a step.”

Kentaro got ready to scold him for thinking that way, but he actually couldn’t deny that his words were true. They didn’t know what they were doing to him, how they had made him crumble enough to take such a step, but it was definitely still not the state Domoto wanted him to be in. Recalling Reo’s perfect straight face while he shot Ryosuke, Kentaro feared even more for his friend. While Taiga’s mind was actually his strongest weapon it could cause him a lot of trouble as well once his opponent found his weakness and somehow he was sure that Domoto had found it the way he had looked at him. That excitement in the older one’s eyes made him tense and he clenched his fists. How had he ended up being in a situation where he couldn’t help? He felt as useless as back when they tried to get Nikaido back.

“It was me who went back to Ryosuke in the first place,” Kento started out of a sudden and Kentaro focused back on the boy whose look had darkened. “If I hadn’t asked him for help back then we wouldn’t be in this mess, but if I hadn’t…” His look went over to Sou who had fallen asleep pretty soon through his exhaustion.

“You helped him, didn’t you?”

Kento nodded and looked back at Fuma with a guilty expression. “I kept it a secret from him at first, but it ended in a huge fight between us and then everything went out of hand all of a sudden. The Storm Warriors destroying the Reapers was something no one had seen coming. You saw the boy with the black hair, next to Keito and Sou?”

Kentaro needed a moment to recall who he had seen, but he just knew the members of the West Tokyo Fight Club, but then he recalled the face of a boy who had asked which education would need a metal collar, maybe it was him. When he nodded Kento continued.

“It was him who had threatened Sou and I had run into him and a few other members of the Storm Warriors before, but they seemed like a bunch of immature brads which would find their way at some point, but it seemed like I was wrong with that way of thinking. Who would have thought that there were people like Sakurai or Yamashita on the top, pulling the strings? And after everything we tried to protect Sou he got hurt the most and Keito…”

Kento’s voice trailed off and he rested back on the chair with a sigh and hid his face in his hands for a moment. Kentaro put his hand on his shoulder, squeezing it comforting.

“Nothing of what happened is your fault.”

“But we had so many chances of somehow getting Ryosuke and Keito away, but it just didn’t work. Fuma had found them after the attack and brought them to our house where I treated them.” Another information which made Kentaro blink at him, because asking Ryosuke for help in the first place had been a surprise to him, but Fuma helping him? But he could see on Kento’s broken look that they had went through a lot over the last weeks and things had definitely changed between them. “After I had tried to rescue him, to make him understand that he had to treasure his new life, that he had to treasure Keito, I failed...I couldn’t rescue him…”

“Kento, stop!” Kentaro interrupted him right away. “You know exactly that you did everything you could. Domoto and his members are the only ones to blame for Ryosuke’s and Keito’s death!”

Of course Kento knew that as well, but with this outcome who wouldn’t feel like he had failed on the whole way?

“How about you rest a little bit as well for now? We can still talk tomorrow. There are a lot of things Ueda has to tell us as well and I guess I also have to tell you a few things.”

Kento’s look turned slightly worried on Kentaro’s sudden gloomy expression, but for now he wouldn’t ask. They all needed to rest for the few hours which were left of the night. Who knew what was awaiting them as soon as Mugen was going to plan their next move?


	3. Chapter 3

Domoto hadn’t returned for the whole night, which was of course something Taiga felt extremely relieved about, but as more he calmed down the more he realized that he should actually be worried, because there was just one other place he could have been over the night and it made Taiga feel extremely uncomfortable out of a sudden, which was good in a weird way, because it made him realize that he was slowly coming back to his senses. Not that it hadn’t taken him long enough to make it to this point and his method was questionable as well, but it had helped and that was all he needed.

“Ehm, what are you doing?”

The sound of the running water had made it impossible for Taiga to hear the door opening or someone entering the bathroom. On the sound of an unknown voice though he looked up, moving his head slightly to the front to stop the water from blurring his vision.

“What does it look like?” Taiga asked back as he spotted a boy with blonde hair in the doorframe, a confused look on his face. He didn’t look dangerous and had definitely not come to threaten him. As with most of the other members Taiga could divide them perfectly and he could tell that he was one of those who were forced to join, so he didn’t feel the need to panic.

“It looks like you are trying to catch the cold of your life,” the boy replied as he moved over to a shelf and pulled out a towel.

Taiga remained in a sitting position under the shower, from which cold water was still dripping down on him. He had lost count of the hours he was sitting there, but the appearance of the boy showed that it was obviously morning by now. He hadn’t even bothered with taking off his clothes. So the white shirt he had been wearing was already transparent. Right after Reo had told him to snap out of it Taiga had sat on the cold floor under the running shower, not knowing how else he was supposed to get a clear mind. Now he was shaking again, feeling as cold as back in Gunma, but he didn’t mind it, because it had made him calm down at least a little bit.

“Are you planning on sitting there the whole day or are you getting up when I tell you that I brought you breakfast?”

That actually made Taiga tilt his head in confusion and also in slight amusement, because the boy seemed pretty uncomfortable since the moment he had stepped into the room, which made him wonder why he had come in the first place.

“And the reason for that would be which?”

“I was told to bring it to you.”

“Who told you to?”

“Reo.”

Of course, who else.

“And why didn’t Reo come himself if he had the time to ask you to do it?” It wasn’t really like Taiga was bothered by the fact that Reo didn’t come, but he was worried. After all the question was if he didn’t want to come or if he couldn’t come.

“Domoto is planning an attack and Reo had to participate in the meeting. He didn’t know how long it was going to take so he sent me instead.”

It made sense, didn’t it? But somehow it also seemed like an excuse. It felt like Reo wanted to avoid him for now, maybe because he felt guilty for not stopping him from shooting his friend? But on the other hand Reo had shot Ryosuke and Keito without any hesitation. Taiga still couldn’t understand him completely and it gave him a headache once more.

“Would you mind turning off the water for now?” The boy asked, still shifting uncomfortable in front of him and that was when Taiga realized that he was obviously trying to keep his distance, because he could have walked over to him and turn off the water himself or drag him away from the shower, right?

“Why are you not coming closer?”

The boy suddenly felt kind of exposed through Taiga’s question and bit his lip with a shy expression on his face. “I was told not to.”

“What?”

“Reo told me not to touch you and to keep as much distance as possible.”

Not what he had expected to get told, at all. With an almost shocked expression he kept staring back at the boy. How was Reo able to confuse him that much all the time? How could he be the perfect emotionless warrior on one hand and that thoughtful about Taiga on the other hand? Taiga rested his head back on the wall with a groan on which the boy seemed quite alarmed all of a sudden.

“Are you okay?”

“Depends on how you define that word, because to be honest I am not okay since the moment I ended up here.”

“Tell me about it,” the boy let out.

Not seeing another reason to stay in his uncomfortable position Taiga finally turned off the water and stood up carefully, knowing that his body was good at giving up on him all of a sudden over the last days. He took the towel from the boy and while the other one vanished into the bedroom again, Taiga changed into dry clothes before he followed him.

As promised there was breakfast waiting for him and Taiga sat down on the opposite side of the bed and the other one pushed the tray over to him.

“I’m not sure if you are hungry after all that happened, but it would be better to at least eat something don’t you think so?”

The boy was right with both he had just said, because Taiga’s stomach turned already while just looking at the food, but it would be totally stupid to not eat while he had the chance. Carefully he took a slice of bread, which seemed to be the easiest food for his stomach to handle.

“How come Reo send you?” Taiga asked after he had already eaten half of the slice and was sure that he didn’t have to run to the toilet.

“As I said he told me that they were in a meeting for an attack.”

On one hand Taiga wanted to know more about that meeting, because he was worried that his own club could be the target, but somehow he doubted that they would go for the strongest club in whole Tokyo right from the start, that wasn’t Domoto’s way of handling things. He liked it to play around first before getting serious after all, but on the other hand he was already sure that the boy had none of the answers he needed.

“Actually I meant why he chose you? Normally the people which come when he can’t make it are Domoto’s most trusted men. You don’t really seem like one of those which follow him on their free will.”

“I am definitely not,” the boy replied right away and his look fell towards the door. “That is also why someone is waiting in the corridor and as soon as I leave this room again he will follow me around as he always does.”

“Guess that is how he makes sure no one gets away easily?”

“Exactly. Normally at least one or two of his trusted members are keeping an eye on those who had been forced to enter Mugen.”

Taiga nodded, still a little bit absentminded while he took another slice of bread, even though his stomach was getting ready to complain.

“So how come you ended up with them?”

“As all the others I came from a fight club and they took me with them after burning down our club. They actually took one more fighter of our club, but…”

When the boy stopped in the middle of the sentence Taiga put the slice down again, eyeing him with a worried look.

“Did they…?”

Taiga didn’t need to voice it out it was written all over the boy’s face. Alone the memory of it made him look a lot more fragile than a moment ago.

“They killed him right in front of my eyes and while I wasn’t less rebellious than him at that time it made me stop resisting right away.” With a sigh he rested with his back at the wall and pulled his knees up to his chest, resting his chin on them with an empty stare through the room. “Pathetic, isn’t it? I was so determined to get away! I wanted to check up on my friends, because I have no clue what happened to them after the attack, but the way I am now there is no way I can make it out of here on my own. Of course I am not showing it in front of any of them, but I can’t deny that I am scared.”

And that was something Taiga could understand better than anyone else around the boy. After meeting Shintaro and hearing about everything that was going on inside Mugen he was sure that even the strongest fighters got frightened at some point by the way Domoto was handling things.

“What about you?” The boy asked and Taiga finally put the tray to the side and sat down in front of him with his legs crossed.

“It’s complicated to be honest. I was traveling with...a friend and then two boys joined us. We found out about Mugen when we ran into a boy who had actually succeeded in getting away from them, but the other two boys who had joined us knew him from the attack on their fight club. One bad thing after the other happened after that. We ended up at the Mugen hideout in the northern part of Japan once on the way, but were allowed to go.”

On that the boy lifted an eyebrow, clearly not able to believe what he had just been told. Domoto letting someone go didn’t seem to happen often, but there was more to the story after all. “After we decided to travel back to Tokyo we were on the road for a few days already and then suddenly Reo appeared out of nowhere. He stabbed the boy who had been with them before and...brought me here. I still don’t know if the boy is okay…” Taiga added in a low voice, realizing that he could still not be sure if Shintaro had survived Reo’s attack or not.

“That sounds so much like one of Domoto’s games,” the boy hissed, obviously disgusted by the leader’s methods. “Why were you traveling to Tokyo?”

“Me and my friend are actually from a fight club here in Tokyo and after hearing that Mugen is also originally from here and on their way to gather we decided to follow them or more like get here faster, but I have no clue if the others made it back to Tokyo before me or not. The other two boys were searching for a friend which was taken at an attack on their club in Sendai.”

They exchanged so many information in their conversation that both needed a moment to process everything and while the boy was still doing so, Taiga finally realized that he had forgotten the most obvious question. “By the way, what’s your name? I totally forgot to ask.”

Still in his thoughts the boy looked up at him with a brief smile. “Sorry I totally forgot to introduce myself. My name is Sakuma I am actually from Sendai as well.”

For a few seconds Taiga just nodded, but then he froze. “Sakuma...from Sendai...SAKU!”

Saku flinched when Taiga suddenly yelled at him while jumping up on his knees.

“Woah, don’t scare me like that! But good to see that you have enough energy to show reactions like that.”

That statement made Taiga smile even wider, because yes finally he had one reason in this huge mess to feel energetic. Finally something good had happened!

“You are the friend of Abe and Watanabe, aren’t you?”

That question made Saku’s eye widen and he moved as fast as Taiga did before and grabbed the boy by the shoulders and shook him slightly.

“You know Ryohei and Shota? Where are they? Are they fine?”

“Calm down, now you are the one who gets too energetic,” Taiga replied as he tried to stop the boy from shaking him, even though his smile was still on his lips and he knew that this wasn’t as much of a coincidence as it seemed at first. Later he had to thank Reo, even though the boy would of course deny that he knew about Saku’s identity.

“Yes they are fine or at least they were the last time I saw them. They are the two boys who joined us. They were searching for you!”

Now Saku finally smiled as well and he finally released Taiga, sitting back on the bed while shaking his head. A small laughter escaped him as he hid his face in his palms for a moment. “They are safe! Thanks god, they are safe!”

“I bet they are already in Tokyo as well and because my friend...okay forget it, this is ridiculous...my protector who is actually my boyfriend is with them as well I am sure that they will end up at my club and there are a lot of people who can help them.”

Out of a sudden Taiga didn’t feel the need anymore to keep any secrets from the boy, because why should he? Finally he had found someone he could talk to and there was no way he would give Saku any reason to mistrust him.

“Do you think your club can do something? You know yourself how strong Mugen is,” Saku replied carefully, but Taiga shook his head.

“Alone they might not be able to, but there are other friends we have which can help. If they all work together we have a chance of winning against Mugen! We already went through a lot of trouble together and there is no way they will get easily defeated!”

Taiga wasn’t sure where he had suddenly got all the positive energy from, but it was exactly what he needed. All of a sudden he felt stronger than ever before, the positive thoughts about his friends and their chances to win this fight gave him the strength he needed to push himself up again. His defenses were back up and this time he would make sure to keep them up. Sure there was still the bending instead of breaking part and there was no way he could get away from that for the time being, but at least he was able to keep a focused mind.

***

The silence in the room was heavy and no one was actually sure what to say or who should speak first.

Kamenashi had decided to send someone over to the North Tokyo Fight Club to let them know that Kentaro and Aran were with him. He also made sure that they got informed about at least a rough version of what happened at the Mugen meeting, which included Fuma and Kento as well of course. In the end Nikaido and Tegoshi had shown up at Kamenashi’s hideout, which hadn’t surprised them that much, but next to them was Nakai which made the atmosphere kind of tense.

Kamenashi on the other hand welcomed him as the other two, like he had already thought that he would show up. In the end it was Kamenashi who spoke first and he asked Nakai to have a private talk with him and the older one accepted right away, leaving the rest of his fighters behind with the warning of not being allowed to leave before he was back.

The remaining people in the room seemed all quite uncomfortable with the situation. After all there were a lot of unknown faces and a lot of questions between those who knew each other. Nikaido’s look fell first on Kentaro, then on Aran, but then he rested his eyes on Ueda with a worried look as he realized that Taiga was obviously not with him. Tegoshi had moved over to Kento right away, asking him about Fuma’s condition. At least like this Tegoshi was busy and he could get most of the explanations from Kento. Fuma had still not woken up, but now Sou was sitting next to him as well. He seemed still tired, but also not willing to leave like that even though the situation was going to get a lot more dangerous from now on.

Aran had made sure to stay on distance the moment Nikaido had entered the room and even though Watanabe and Abe didn’t know what was going on between the fight club members they realized that they should stay in the background as well.

When Nikaido started moving through the room Kentaro held his breath. Was he going to get scolded for sneaking after Aran? For not telling Nikaido that he realized that something weird was going on? He prepared for a lot, even for a punch and a lot of yelling, but when Nikaido just walked passed him and stopped in front of Ueda the boy’s eyes widened in shock. Nothing? That was actually the worst reaction he could have thought of. It meant that he didn’t care, right? It didn’t matter to him what he did or why he did it. Normally he would always demand an explanation after he did something stupid, but this time he didn’t seem to care at all, not even if he was fine or not.

“You mind explaining what is going on?” Nikaido asked Ueda whose eyes were actually on Kentaro who stared at Nikaido’s back with an empty look before his legs were finally willing to move and he sat down next to Aran on the couch at the side of the room where the boy had been waiting. Nikaido didn’t even spare him a glance, but Ueda could see that he had suddenly tensed and even Aran gave Kentaro a worried look, but didn’t make a move to shift away. “Where’s Taiga?”

Ueda tried to concentrate back on Nikaido on that question. “Let’s sit down, this talk will need some time,” Ueda explained before they moved towards the other side of the big room. Kentaro had told him and Kamenashi in the morning everything in detail he had witnessed at the Mugen meeting, so they could give Nakai and Nikaido all the details as well. Kento had been there so he was able to explain things to Tegoshi, but a look at the older one made him finally stand up again and approach them.

“Sorry to interrupt, but can I ask you something?” Kentaro asked Tegoshi as the latter turned towards him and Kento stopped talking for a moment.

“What is it?” Tegoshi asked with his usual caring smile. At least he was standing to his word that he was still going to be at Kentaro’s side, not regarding what had happened, which made the boy relax a little bit.

“Did Hagiya come back to the club?”

“He was gone?”

“Ehm, yes...with Aran and me...more or less.”

“In the morning when one of Kamenashi’s men came to explain everything he was at the training room as usual, I didn’t realize he hadn’t been there at night.”

Of course no one had realized that they had left and Hagiya had definitely sneaked back inside after the Mugen meeting, but that made him wonder why the boy wasn’t here.

“Sorry, I still didn’t tell him all the details,” Kento explained. That was why Tegoshi didn’t know that Hagiya had been at the Mugen meeting as well.

“Take your time. But can I ask why Hagiya is not with you? Or Juri and Kochi?”

“Nakai forbid them to come. He said there were already enough people involved. He feared that the other members could get into even more danger if they got involved too much.”

That made Kentaro relax a little bit, because after all it was a smart move of Nakai and he was grateful for his decision. At least for as long as possible they could keep the rest of their friends out of their mess.

“Okay, thank you,” Kentaro excused himself again and moved back to Aran, giving the other two boys a short glance, but they seemed extremely exhausted. Kentaro had heard from Ueda about the details of their travel as well, up until the moment Kamenashi rescued them, so it was just natural for the boys to be exhausted like that.

“Are you okay?” Aran asked when Kentaro kept staring into the room absentminded for quite a long time and didn’t even react when Aran waved his hand in front of his face.

“No, not at all to be honest,” Kentaro let out and dropped against the backrest of the couch, lifting up his knees and hugged them. “This is the biggest mess we ever ended up in and I have the feeling I still just got the surface of it.”

“But you don’t really have to get involved deeper. It would just get even more dangerous.”

“And leave Taiga behind with that crazy person? You got to be kidding,” Kentaro replied in a kind of snappy tone which made Aran bite his lip in apology. Of course he hadn’t forgotten about what Kentaro had told him that Taiga was his friend, but that didn’t mean it was less dangerous.

“Don’t you think Nakai and the Titanium Triangle can handle it somehow? Maybe with the help of the other fight clubs as well?”

“Says the one who went to a Mugen meeting….or Avernus meeting, whatever...on his own together with Hagiya. What the hell did you think? And why would you try to stop me from interfering when you interfered in the first place?”

All those sudden accusations made Aran keep silent for a while and he seemed to search for the right words, but nothing seemed to come to his mind. In the end Kentaro let out a groan and hid his face on his knees for a moment before he turned to look at his friend again.

“I’m sorry I know I have no right to snap at you. It was my own decision to follow you, but you have to understand that there is no way I am going to sit still while one of my friends is in danger. I will do everything to rescue him.”

“Sounds like you,” Aran replied in a low voice, a faint smile appearing on his face. His look turned nostalgic, but also kind of troubled all of a sudden before he seemed to get a grip again and smiled more brightly at his friend. “That’s the Kentaro I know, always there for everyone. But don’t forget that there are people who want to protect you as well!”

“Not as many as before though…” Kentaro let out as his look wandered over to Nikaido, but the latter was still not paying him any attention.

“I still do.”

It took Kentaro a moment to realize that Aran had actually said that and he faced his friend once more. The guilt in the boy’s eyes was more than obvious now, not that it wasn’t something Kentaro had seen coming already. “Kentaro, you know...about what happened before, I don’t know...what came over me, I am-”

“...sorry. I know. Of course you are.” Kentaro ended his sentence and the boy escaped a quite laughter on that, because it was something he should have seen coming. Kentaro knew him the best after all. “Aran, I am not angry at you. I am angry at myself and disappointed, because I hurt both of you a lot with what I did,” Kentaro explained and he knew that he had to talk to Nikaido about everything once more as well, but it was definitely not the right timing.


	4. Chapter 4

Since a lot of people had suddenly come to the Exposers’ hideout Kamenashi had made sure that Fuma was moved to another room. Kento and Sou had made clear that they weren’t leaving his side, but no one would have asked them to anyways. Tegoshi had also stayed with them since the evening.

After everyone was done with the talking part, which had actually taken a long time, especially the talk between Kamenashi and Nakai, everything was a bit calmer now that evening had arrived. Nakai and Kamenashi had left and explained that they were going to have a talk with the other fight clubs, even though Kamenashi had warned them already after the talk he had had with Nikaido a few evenings before, but now they had more information. After Kentaro had told them that the members of the West Tokyo Fight Club were involved as well they had to stop Tegoshi from freaking on the spot, after all it was the proof that Massu’s death hadn’t been an accident and now Kentaro could explain why Yara had looked up at Takizawa at some point. He had waited for an order if his opponent was dangerous enough to get killed or not. It actually made him kind of angry that he was still considered weak, but on the other hand it saved his life.

To their surprise Hagiya showed up later in the afternoon, explaining that he had been allowed to come when Nakai had shortly dropped by the club to explain everyone what was going on. After all Hagiya was worried for Aran as well after they had to part at the meeting and couldn’t be sure where the other one had ended up.

Things were calm inside the main room of the hideout. Aran and Hagiya had withdrawn towards a couch, while Ueda seemed still too restless to calm down, but with Nikaido not being the talkative person they weren’t that good in helping each other to stay calm, especially because Nikaido had his own troubles.

Normally Kentaro would have already taken action and talk to both of them, but with the way things were between him and Nikaido there was no way he would approach Ueda while Nikaido was still next to him. Which made him walk over to Watanabe and Miyadate instead.

“Mind if I join you guys?” Kentaro asked, pointing at the chair next to the couch and Miyadate smiled at him, pointing at the chair.

“Please feel free to do so.”

“I’m sorry that there was no real time for introductions and stuff between all the chaos, but I guess calm times are rare here anyways.”

Kentaro’s words made both chuckle a little bit, because they had heard from Taiga and Ueda already that there was always something going on around their fight club.

“It’s not like we have time for long chit-chat anyway. You have to get Taiga out of there and we need to find our friend.”

“And then we have a lot of asses to kick,” Watanabe added on which Miyadate hit him on the back of the head on which Kentaro let out a small chuckle.

“I’m still not quite sure what is going on, but I can tell that Domoto is a really dangerous person and...even though I know Taiga isn’t the person to give up easily it scared me to see him this...broken.”

The boys could totally imagine what he had witnessed, after everything Shintaro had told them about Domoto’s methods.

“And it was really Taiga who shot your friend?” Watanabe asked carefully, gaining a scolding look from Miyadate for posting such a question, but Kentaro signaled him that it was okay.

“I know that on the first look it seems like he had lost it, but I am sure that it was the only way out. Whatever Domoto had told him, was enough to make him shoot.”

“We can just hope that we won’t end up in a similar situation then,” Watanabe said with a worried look, because things could get worse with every time Taiga had to follow a cruel order like that. It could make him crumble even faster.

“Seems like you are getting along quite good,” Ueda was heard next to them the next moment and Kentaro looked over his shoulder.

“Where is Nikaido?” He asked worried as he couldn’t spot the latter.

“He said he wanted to take a look at Fuma. I can’t blame him. It’s not like he is the type who is good at having comforting talks with people.”

“And still he was the one who talked to Tegoshi after what happened to Massu,” Kentaro added, even though they all knew he had no other choice at that time. Now it was different, because there were enough other people who could handle the situation better than him.

“Kentaro, I know you have a lot of other worries at the moment, but can I talk to you about Nikaido for a moment? If you want it private.”

When Ueda pointed towards the other corner of the room the boy shook his head and pointed at the chair next to him.

“It’s okay, as long as you two don’t mind hearing about private matters,” Kentaro asked and the boys exchanged a brief look before they decided to stay and Ueda sat down as well.

“He didn’t tell me anything, but just the way he passed by you before and didn’t even ask you if you were okay made me worry a lot.”

“If I was okay…” A self-mocking chuckle escaped Kentaro on that, but sure normally that was what Nikaido would do, right? “To be honest I thought he would scold me or hit me, but nothing...that had even shocked me.”

“What happened?” Ueda asked more direct this time and Kentaro shifted impatiently before he faced the two boys first.

“Just so you can follow, Nikaido and I am together or were...it is complicated.” Just this one sentence made Ueda tense, but he still didn’t interrupt the boy. “The boy over there, Aran...we were together a few years ago and he came in our club as a new member. Things had ended abruptly between us and there were a lot of unspoken things, not clarified situations and….forgotten emotions.”

Kentaro took a deep breath, now his eyes landing on Ueda who could already tell in which direction this talk was going and he didn’t seem pleased by it of course.

“Ueda I know through how much shit you all went to get Nikaido back to me and I apologized to the others as well and let me tell you that Juri might still want to rip me apart when I go back to the club, but for now apologizing is all I can do.”

“You cheated on him?” Ueda asked directly and even though it gave the boy a sting it was more pleasant to hear it from him as voice it out himself. He bit his cheek from the inside and nodded slowly. The silence that followed was heavy and even though the two boys didn’t know about all the trouble behind their relationship it was obvious that they could tell that this was a huge problem standing between those two.

“That explains his behavior at least,” Ueda said as he rested back on the chair with an exhausted expression. “Then let’s hope we can get rid of your mess as well while also taking care of our Avernus problem.”

Kentaro was grateful for Ueda’s support, but he knew that his private problems were their smallest worry for now.

***

Sou had been asleep pretty fast in the evening and who could blame him? He was still worried about his family and the happenings of the last weeks were still forcing him to take it slow. Kamenashi and Kento had taken a look at his wounds as well and they seemed after all pretty bad, especially because they hadn’t been treated at all and were infected. But at least his condition wasn’t as bad as Fuma’s and so Kento was relieved instead of worried when he slept more than he was awake. With Fuma it was a different topic though, because all he wanted was him to wake up.

Tegoshi was sitting on a chair on the other side of Fuma’s bed which was placed in the middle of the room, while Kento was sitting on the side of the bed, holding Fuma’s hand. Sou was sleeping on a second bed which was placed at the back of the room which looked a lot like their med room just a little bit smaller.

When Kento looked up at Tegoshi he formed a smile, because the latter had also fallen asleep, even though a sitting position was definitely not that comfortable for long.

“If I had just stayed away from all the trouble,” Kento whispered as he stroke over Fuma’s cheek with a apologizing look. “Then Sou would have ended up in an even bigger mess would be what you’d answer now, right?”

His monologue made him chuckle and shake his head, but what else was there for him to do? There was no way he would wake up the others just to have someone to talk to him, because he needed to distract himself. But then he got distracted completely without their help as the hand in his moved.

“Fuma?” Kento asked as he shifted closer, studying the younger one’s face. First there was a sound, like Fuma wanted to complain that he didn’t want to get up, but sleep for at least a few more minutes, but then the sound turned into something more suffering as if his body needed a moment to get that it was hurt. “Fuma can you hear me?”

First there was no direct response, but then slowly Fuma opened his eyes and he looked towards the ceiling with a quite confused expression.

“We are at the Exposers’ hideout,” Kento explained and finally Fuma seemed to adapt to his surroundings more and he looked at the boy.

“Are you okay?” Fuma asked in a raspy voice.

“Stupid, that is my question. I didn’t have to dig out a bullet out of my own body you know?”

“Right…” Fuma moved his free hand carefully to his stomach, but made a grimace when he touched it lightly and pulled back right away. He spotted Tegoshi next to him and turned his head to find Sou on the other bed. “Why is Tegoshi here? What is going on?”

“Kamenashi informed our club, because Kentaro got involved as well and...Taiga of course.”

The mention of Taiga’s name made a shadow pass Fuma’s face, but then he closed his eyes and let out a chuckle which actually made Kento title his head in confusion.

“Sorry, it’s just...I thought I’d be totally outraged when I wake up and might even act as stupid as usual and blame the wrong person for everything.”

“You mean blaming Taiga?”

“Yes.”

“But you don’t?” Kento asked carefully and he was more than relieved seeing how Fuma shook his head.

“No, I don’t. Someone told me not to. Actually the same person who told me to move my ass back to you.”

Kento made a move to put his free hand to Fuma’s forehead, because he was suddenly worried that the younger one had a really high fever, because his words wouldn’t make sense at all. But Fuma stopped his hand with a small laughter.

“Don’t worry I am not going crazy now. I just had a dream, that’s all.”

“A dream about what?”

“More about whom. Hokuto appeared in it and told me to get my ass back to you, because we had to rescue a friend and isn’t he right?”

It took Kento a few moments to catch up to what he had said. Sure it was just a dream, but it had the best outcome possible. It was rare to see Fuma so collected after such an incidence. Normally he would freak first and act logical later, if even.

Kento formed a bright smile and leant down to kiss Fuma’s forehead. “Guess I have to thank Hokuto someday for telling you this.”

“But that still has to wait many years,” Fuma replied and held Kento close before the latter could back off and pulled him down for a real kiss. Unfortunately they got interrupted sooner than they wanted as the door opened the next moment. They pulled apart fast enough to hide what they were doing, but as they looked towards the door and it was Nikaido who walked inside they relaxed right away. The sound of the door had also finally woken up Tegoshi again who stared at Fuma right away.

“Here I sleep for a moment and you wake up.”

“Who knows, maybe you were too noisy for me to wake up before?”

“Ha, ha as if someone could ever be noisier than you,” Tegoshi replied, but squeezed the boy’s shoulder the next moment. “Good to see that you all right.”

“As all right as I can be at least.”

“There is no need for you to get involved in anything else so you can take a good rest,” Nikaido explained, but that made the two boys exchange a worried look.

“We appreciate that you want to keep us out of this, but I doubt we will stay out of it,” Kento replied which actually made Nikaido look at him in confusion, because normally Kento was the one who would love to stay out of trouble, but his look fell on Fuma next. The boy was smiling at his boyfriend, because he had gotten that Fuma was definitely not willing to sit on the sideline for long.

“Where’s Kentaro by the way? Is he okay? And the boy who was with him, Aran was his name if I remember correctly?” Kento asked.

The question made Nikaido look to the ground for a moment before he faced them all with a serious expression. Too serious for the Nikaido they had around since they got him back, it almost seemed like he wanted to get up his walls from before again. “They are both fine, don’t worry.”

“That’s good to hear, we...OW, Fuma, what the hell,” Kento hissed at him as the latter grabbed him by the elbow with such a force that he jolted. Using his grip on the latter he pulled himself up into a sitting position and didn’t even lie down again when Tegoshi told him to. The sudden tumult had woken up Sou as well and he looked at them in slight confusion.

“Fuma, what is going on?” Kento asked as he saw that the latter seemed deep in his thoughts all of a sudden.

“Aran …” Fuma stuttered, still not making sense to anyone.

“Fuma what is it? Could you finally explain what is going on?”

But instead of explaining anything he turned to Sou who looked at him kind of worried on the intense stare he received. “Sou, the boy with the black hair next to you at the meeting, who was he?”

“What? Ehm, the one next to Yamashita with the short black hair? That was Ren. He is a member of the Storm Warriors.”

“Is there another boy who had entered the club with Aran? Blonde hair?”

“Yes there is, but-” Nikaido explained, but stopped when Fuma tried to get up. But of course he was stopped by Kento immediately and he pushed the latter back on the bed.

“Fuma, stop it! Please whatever it is, you can explain it to us without getting up. It won’t help us if you hurt yourself.”

“You don’t understand! You have to stop them, now! Where are they?”

“What are you talking about? Could you be more precisely?” Tegoshi asked, now on his feet as well, mostly to make sure that Fuma wouldn’t try to get up again.

There was just a short shouted explanation before Nikaido rushed outside the room, cursing himself for being so stupid. How hadn’t he even thought about this possibility? They had been all so busy with finding out more about Mugen and the West Tokyo Fight Club and of course about Taiga’s condition, that they had completely forgotten to start searching among their own.

***

Kentaro had succeeded in keeping the conversation as neutral as possible after his confession, but soon Nikaido and Tegoshi stormed inside the room and with them a few of Kamenashi’s men.

Ueda was on his feet before anything even happened, but then Nikaido turned towards Aran and Hagiya, which were sitting nearest to the door and looked at them in slight panic.

“Get them,” Nikaido ordered and even though he wasn’t even a member of the Exposers he was still known as Fujigaya’s right hand in the Underground, so the Exposers’ members moved on his order.

“What are you doing? Stop!” When Kentaro got what was going on he jumped up and ran towards them, trying to stop them as they cornered the two boys. But his try to get to them was stopped by Nikaido who took him by the wrist and pulled him back before he could interfere. “Let go! What are you doing? What is going on?”

“As soon as I am sure that they won’t escape I will tell you,” Nikaido explained and Kentaro looked at Tegoshi as if he hoped to find someone who was on his side, but even though Tegoshi’s look was gentler, almost apologizing he didn’t interfere. A curse from Aran made Kentaro swirl around again, but Nikaido would still not let go of him.

Everything had happened so fast that they didn’t have the chance to even fight and the members had been warned about Aran’s special technique, so as soon as they had gotten a grip on him they made sure that he wasn’t able to get his hands free. Hagiya also stopped struggling soon, because they were outnumbered anyways.

“Nikaido, what is this about?” Ueda interfered now, Watanbe and Miyadate right behind him as they approached him.

“Maybe they want to explain it to you themselves?” Nikaido asked, but Hagiya just looked at Aran with a confused look, which was well played, but still fake.

“Kentaro, what is he talking about? Why are you attacking us, we are all on the same side,” Aran addressed his friend, but Nikaido almost dragged Kentaro behind him before the boy could answer.

“Are we? Why were you at the Avernus meeting?”

“I told you earlier, didn’t you listen to me?” Kentaro interfered, now finally ripping his wrist out of the older one’s grip.

“Yes you told me, but don’t you think there are too many contradictions in his story? Spying on Avernus? Why would he? If you were really just normal fight club members you wouldn’t have any connections towards them. And for whom were you spying? Even the Titanium Triangle didn’t know of their existence, how did you?”

“Cut it out, Nikaido! What are you trying to say?” Kentaro yelled at him, but then there was a chuckle. A sound Kentaro hadn’t heard until now, not from him at least. He turned towards his friend to find Aran facing the ground while he kept chuckling.

“Finally giving up your game?” Nikaido asked, on which the boy lifted his head with a weird smile. It actually made Kentaro take a step back and he bumped against Nikaido who put a hand on his shoulder intuitively.

“We sure played you a lot, such a shame that we couldn’t go through with it until the end,” Aran let out and Hagiya shook his head, but seemed to have switched personalities as well out of a sudden. His carefree and shy personality suddenly turning into something darker, more dangerous.

“Where did we mess up? Earlier no one of you seemed to mind our spy story,” Aran asked curiously.

“Fuma just woke up and he realized that he had seen you two before. Together with Ren a member of the Storm Warriors,” Tegoshi explained.

“Oh, didn’t see that coming. And here I thought Kento had remembered that he had once spilt a drink on me, but seems like he was too busy with the rescue of little Sou and Ryosuke at that time. What a shame that it didn’t work out completely in the end.”

Kentaro’s mind jumped back a few weeks when he had heard the conversation about Aran’s shirt being ruined. So it had been a game for the whole time already. From the moment they had entered the club.

“So it was all fake? Everything?” Kentaro voiced out, almost inaudible.

The look he received from Aran on that question was something he couldn’t interpret at all. He had just been told that his friend had betrayed them in one of the worst ways possible and now he should hope to see some true feelings in his eyes? How could he tell for sure that those emotions he was seeing weren’t played as well? If everything he had told him had been fake? Before he could even think of analyzing Aran’s behavior he shook his head and stepped even further back. Why was there no answer? Why did Aran keep looking at him like that? It was almost as if he tried to beg him to understand his decision, to forgive him for what he has done, because...because of what?

There was no time to discuss the topic now, because before they could even decide what to do with them there were fast steps outside in the hallway and the door flung open revealing even more Exposers’ members, but also Fire Foxes member which confused everyone completely and then Kamenashi and Kitayama came inside as well. Kitayama carrying a boy on his back and it took Kentaro a moment to realize that he knew the person.

“MYUTO!”

The chaos reached its peak when they all realized that the people they had just brought were members of Myuto’s fight club and the smell of smoke was all over the room out of a sudden.

“They already moved?” Ueda asked in shock as he moved to help them. Watanabe and Miyadate were next to a few members right away as well to help.

“Nakai went to Fukka’s club and I was on my way to Myuto’s, but we were too late it was already on fire,” Kamenashi explained.

“Luckily we had been informed by someone who had gotten away in the middle of the fight and arrived in time to fight them off before someone got killed, but it seemed like the new fighter which had entered their club had been a traitor and had prepared the attack with the Avernus members,” Kitayama explained.

“Same as us then,” Tegoshi said as he crossed his arms to his chest and Kitayama and Kamenashi’s look followed his and they finally realized about Aran’s hand Hagiya’s situation.

“They are traitors?” Kitayama asked in confusion and Tegoshi nodded.

“We will explain details later, but for now-”

They wanted to make sure that they couldn’t get away, was what Tegoshi wanted to say, but the arrival of so many people had distracted them all and Aran had used it to his advantage and had freed himself. There were three people which had held on to him directly and two more in the back, but as soon as he got his hands free the number of opponents didn’t matter to him anymore. It took him just the felt blink of an eye to turn them immobile and Hagiya had succeeded as well in getting free while everyone was distracted by Aran.

It didn’t took long for Nikaido to go into the offensive and he got ready to fight the boy, after all he had trained him for a few weeks and knew at least some of his tricks, but Kentaro saw the movement of Aran’s hand vanishing inside the back of his jacket as he dashed forward and that made him interfere before things could escalate.

He reached Aran sooner than Nikaido and threw himself in front of the boy the moment he drew out a knife and wanted to attack straight on with it.

“Stop it! Please Aran, this doesn’t has to end like this,” Kentaro shouted at him while they started struggling for the knife and everyone else froze when the knife vanished between them until Aran got the upper hand and ripped his hand out of the boy’s grip. What made Nikaido move again was his next move though, because he pulled Kentaro closer on the hair and forced him to turn around, facing his friends, his back now pressed against the latter’s chest, with the knife right at his throat.

“Who said it would end here? Everything begins from here,” Aran whispered in his ear before he gave Nikaido a lopsided smile. The latter had of course stopped again the moment he had brought the knife to the boy’s throat.

“Would you mind making way?” Aran addressed Kamenashi and Kitayama who were still standing in the door.

“Aran, you don’t have to go back. We can help you out. We could-”

Another chuckle escaped Aran and it turned into a loud laughter quite fast, giving Kentaro the creeps.

“Help us out? Who said we wanted out? But you know what? I can give you the chance to join us instead. How does that sound?”

It sounded ridiculous and Aran should know it, right? But the invitation didn’t seem to be joke to him. He meant what he said. “Think about it. You would be on the winning side and with your friend as well as a plus point.”

This time it was Ueda who glared at him on the mention of Taiga, because for them it was clear that Taiga wasn’t going to be with them for much longer and what was also not the same for them was the winning side.

“I won’t give up that easily,” Kentaro answered without even thinking about his offer. Instead he took the boy’s arm and tried to pull the knife away from his throat. “If you can’t break free out of whatever cruel world you have landed in I will make sure to pull you out.”

While Aran almost started laughing again on those words, Nikaido’s look turned darker on Aran’s reaction. He knew exactly what Kentaro was trying and why he didn’t want to give up on his friend that easily, after all they had known each other for quite a time before he had entered the fight club and the way he had talked about him Aran didn’t seem to be a bad person from the start, so there might be hope for him as there had been hope for Nikaido after he had lost his way. But there was no way they could solve the problem here and now.

“Let them go.”

“What? Nikaido, are you sure?” Kamenashi asked the other one skeptical, but the younger one nodded and somehow he seemed extremely convincing to everyone, because they stepped away from the door and Hagiya lost no time to vanish into the corridor right away, waiting for his friend to follow. He dragged Kentaro with him until they were standing in the doorframe and he waited until Hagiya confirmed that there were no other people blocking their way.

“Last chance,” Aran whispered against Kentaro’s ear, but the boy gulped nervously before he shook his head and closed his eyes. When Aran wanted to take the knife down Kentaro grabbed his sleeve even tighter than before and rested his head back against his shoulder.

“Even if it was the last chance for me, it isn’t for you. Please remember that! I won’t leave you behind again!”

It seemed like Aran was startled by his words for a moment, because he didn’t move until Hagiya yelled at him. Without another word he shoved Kentaro to the front with such a force that Nikaido had to catch him. When he turned around to the door the boy was already gone.


	5. Chapter 5

It felt almost unreal to Taiga how his body and mind seemed to recover from the bad happenings of the past day way sooner now that he had talked to Saku. Of course the boy hadn’t been allowed to spend the whole day with him, so at some point he had to leave, but that one talk had been enough to give Taiga the positive energy back he had lost under the pressure of Domoto’s game. Hadn’t Reo told him? Bend, don’t break. He had to remind himself that what he was doing was all played. Even if he bowed to Domoto it didn’t mean anything to him, but as long as Domoto thought he had broken him it would serve the purpose.

For the rest of the day no one else entered the room and it wasn’t before night had already arrived that Taiga heard loud voices outside. He had already been asleep and sat up the moment he heard shouting in the corridors. It took almost half an hour for everything to calm down and then there was silence for a while, until Taiga heard steps towards his door. Calm steps, which he could identify right away.

He didn’t bother standing up, why would he? Domoto was going to lie down next to him anyways, so why even trying to get on distance. The latter entered the room seconds later, but something was different. His perfect calm expression seemed scratched and revealed a kind of restless, almost annoyed look. And if that wasn’t weirdly enough, he also didn’t spend Taiga any attention and that after he had succeeded in cornering him that much at their last meeting in this room. What could have happened to make him lose interest in his game? The latter changed his clothes in silence and lay down without a single word and if Taiga waited a moment longer he would turn the lights off and he would have nothing to worry about for at least one night, but now that his defenses were up again and he was on high alert, something else also came back, his courage to make snappy comments even though he knew he would get punished for it. But he needed to make a point. Show the other one that he wasn’t scared and not that easily driven to a corner again.

“Did something happen?”

There was no reaction at first and with the latter having his back turned to him he couldn’t be sure if he already annoyed him or not. Not that he cared. “I heard you attacked a club today?”

The silence from the older one was almost scary, because he had normally so much to say and here he was silent and it was clear that he wasn’t asleep that fast.

“Didn’t work as planned?” While Taiga posted the question a teasing smile formed on his lips and he had to try hard to make it disappear the moment Domoto escaped a sigh before he sat up, facing the boy with a dangerous glare.

“Out of a sudden you seem to enjoy it again to play with the fire. Do you need a reminder of what happens if you burn yourself?”

No, actually he didn’t need to get reminded of that and the wounds from the whip were still not healed, so he still carried his reminder. But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t test his limits once more.

“I just wondered why you seem so down.”

“Instead of your concern I prefer your obedience. For now all you have to do is shut up.”

This time Taiga failed in hiding his smile, because he had never heard such a snappy reply from the latter.

“Your plan failed, didn’t it?” It was his last chance to just turn around and let the latter calm down before he would freak. But no, he had cracked his perfect mask and he wanted to see what was underneath it, because until now he had perfectly hidden all the insanity which he definitely carried under that mask and even though it was risky Taiga wanted to grab the chance and get to know his enemy better. His smile just grew wider and more mockingly while the look of the leader shot a last warning at him, which the boy ignored. “You were defeated by the club you attacked. You lost!”

The movement was fast and precisely as Domoto shot up. A hand closing around Taiga’s throat right above the metal collar made Taiga choke as he was shoved down on the bed with Domoto sitting on top of him. The older one had grabbed one of his wrists and pinned it to the bed while his other hand added more and more force on the boy’s throat, which made Taiga move his free hand towards the latter’s arm, trying to loosen his grip, but as expected he wasn’t able to.

Seconds passed tormenting slow and Domoto’s mask seemed to have crumbled for good. His expression was of a truly insane person with no mercy and also no reason for his actions showing in his eyes. That actually made Taiga fear that he had overstepped the limits at a very bad timing. After what felt like minutes already there was still no visible change, just the force of Domoto’s grip turning even stronger instead of weaker, which made Taiga feel dizzy because no air was filling his lunges anymore. He opened his mouth to speak, but instead of words there was a cough escaping his mouth.

“Is there anything you want to say?” Domoto asked. His voice almost a growl of a wild animal and even if Taiga wanted to reply something he couldn’t. Soon he would black out or even worse, but then Domoto’s look changed once more and a bit of his usual calmness seemed to return. He tilted his head and leant closer to Taiga who had more than just a few problems to keep conscious while his hand was still somehow trying to get the latter’s hand away from his throat. But the moment Domoto leant closer his hand moved to the man’s collar, pulling on it almost as if he tried to tell him through his grip what he couldn’t voice out. “You have one chance to say what I want to hear,” he whispered and his hand moved slightly, but the pressure was still there. “You should know me well enough by now to know what I want to hear. One chance, not more.”

Finally he removed his hand and let go of Taiga’s other arm at the same moment, but remained on top of the boy. Taiga tried to take a deep breath, but of course he failed and he coughed painfully and wanted to turn on his stomach, but the weight of Domoto’s body forced him to stay on his back. He leant to the side as good as possible to calm down his breathing pace and stop his body from shaking, but it took him several minutes to make everything stop spinning in front of his eyes. By the time he was able to focus again Domoto had his mask back on almost perfectly, but it was clear that it would just remain if Taiga gave him the right reply, but luckily he knew exactly what he wanted to hear. Another proof that Taiga was on his best way to surrender even more to him at least that was what Taiga wanted him to believe. Domoto wanted the feeling of control and obedience. A recognition of Taiga’s defeat and when that was all he had to do to place Domoto’s mask back where it belonged so that he could rest assure not to get killed out of a sudden then he would gladly bend even more and give him what he needed.

“I’m sorry,” Taiga let out in a hoarse voice, a small cough following his words and he closed his eyes with a pained expression. When Domoto’s hand was suddenly back on his skin he flinched. Had he miscalculated? Wasn’t that what he wanted to hear? But he relaxed pretty soon as he opened his eyes and saw the pleased smile on the latter’s face, now the same satisfaction shining in his eyes as when Taiga had bowed to him before. His hand wasn’t closing tightly this time, it was just stroking over the boy’s neck before it went up to his cheek.

“I knew you could perfectly tell what to say,” Domoto replied before he got off the boy again, which actually surprised Taiga. He had found back to his calm attitude sooner than he had thought and didn’t try to humiliate him even more, but maybe the man was really just exhausted for once and couldn’t bother with any kind of games for this night. “I hope this was a clear warning.”

Taiga nodded, because not showing any reaction would definitely make the latter angry again and he had experienced enough of his true personality for one night.

“Good night, Taiga.”

“Good night.”

Taiga blinked in confusion at his own words, but somehow his idea had backfired at least in some points, because he had actually gotten even more scared of the man than before. He would have never bothered with polite answers before, but now he feared any action of his could trigger another outburst.

At least he was sure that by the next morning the leader would definitely be back to normal, focused and unreadable for everyone and that is how he preferred it for now. He had tested the limits and at least he could tell now what was hidden under this mask and maybe he could use it to his advantage at some point. For now he had to calm down again, but luckily this time it didn’t require a cold shower, just thinking about the talk with Saku made him relax quite fast and he knew he was able to face this game the next day with his own rules!

***

Things had started escalating fast after they had discovered that Aran and Hagiya had been traitors. Of course Kentaro had tried to go after them, but Nikaido had stopped him and suddenly everyone was shouting at everyone. In the end Kamenashi freaked, which was extremely rare, but necessary at that moment.

He had sent Tegoshi back to Kento, Sou and Fuma to make sure they would get informed about the outcome of their information. It was also good for Tegoshi to get distracted, because even though he was a calm character normally, his rage level had reached a really high point after he realized that Massu had been killed on purpose so that they had one strong opponent less for their attack later.

Calming down Nikaido and Kentaro had been way more difficult, especially because their private problems were interfering too much. A normal and especially logical conversation or decision about how to proceed wasn’t possible for both sides.

“Kentaro, you are coming with me,” Kamenashi announced after he had made sure that Myuto and the other fighters of his club would get treated, but luckily Kitayama had been fast enough to prevent any heavy injuries.

“Where to? There is nowhere to go except after them,” Kentaro hissed at him, but the latter’s decision was final and there was no way he would let anyone leave at this critical point. He had sent a few men to Fukka’s club to let Nakai know what had happened. If there were traitors in Fukka’s club as well they would be able to expose them before an actual attack could happen.

“For now you need to calm down and between all those people you can’t do that, so I am making sure that you will stay in a private room for some time. Same as Nikaido, Ueda and the rest of you!”

Everyone looked at him skeptical, because they were all not really in the mood to rest, but Kamenashi had a point after all. In their state they would all go on a suicide mission without even thinking about any consequences.

“I am not-”

“No back talk, I warn you!” Kamenashi interrupted Kentaro who was ready to freak any moment. He was walking up and down the room, but he couldn’t get out, because Kitayama had made sure to block the door.

“I am not going to stay locked in a room!” Kentaro rebelled again on which Kamenashi was ready to get his men to drag him inside a room to make him calm down.

“How about he stays with me for a while?”

“Over my dead body!”

Silence followed after Kitayama’s offer and Nikaido’s threat, while Kentaro stood between them and raised an eyebrow.

“Then you might want to stay with him?” Kitayama asked serious.

“No way,” Kentaro replied instead which made everyone’s look turn a little bit confused, while Nikaido’s look darkened. After all everyone would have thought Kentaro would love to see Nikaido approach him again, after all he had tried to make up for his mistake, but things had changed now.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Nikaido asked neutral, but Kentaro’s look turned almost scolding as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“It’s your fault that I couldn’t stop him! If you had talked to me first instead of attacking him like this we could have maybe helped him.”

“Help him? He is a member of Avernus! Are you even listening to yourself? He tricked us all. He even lied to you and used you-”

“He didn’t use me!” Kentaro yelled and it was clear that their conversation was going completely wrong once more.

“Okay, enough! No one except the members of my troop, Kitayama’s men and Myuto’s club members are allowed to stay in this room! Watanabe and Miyadate, please feel free to use one of our private quarters for the night,” Kamenashi offered and told one of his men to show them the way. They looked at Ueda, but the latter nodded right away. After all this had nothing to do with them and they should rest instead of getting involved in their ridiculous fights. When they left the room Kamenashi turned towards Ueda next.

“I know you have your own problems at the moment and are in the need of clearing your head, but could you make sure that Nikaido stays in a room with you for at least one night?”

This time it was Nikaido who reacted as snappy as Kentaro before as he turned to the Exposers’ leader with a disbelieving look.

“As if you could order us around like this! We are no prisoners here. Don’t forget that I was part of the Titanium Triangle before as well.”

“I don’t care to be honest,” Kamenashi replied calmly. “At the moment you are no better than Kentaro and I am not in the mood to let you run wild while we all just need to make a plan to get this chaos under control. End of discussion.”

Before Nikaido could freak completely, Ueda grabbed him by the arm when he made a threatening step towards Kamenashi.

“Don’t make matters worse. All we try is to make you calm down, all of you!” Ueda said and looked at Kentaro for a moment as well. The boy seemed to have calmed down a little bit and gave the older one an apologizing look.

Nikaido shot another death glare at Kamenashi and a really hard to interpret look at Kentaro before he turned around and left the room with Ueda.

“Okay, let’s go,” Kamenashi said as he moved towards a door on the other side, making sure that their quarters were as far apart as possible. When Kentaro didn’t follow immediately the leader turned around once more. His look was still calm, but also with a hint of impatience in it. Having another discussion now would lead to nothing, so Kentaro just rolled his eyes before he followed him.

***

“I fear Taiga hasn’t exaggerated when he told me before that his fight club is chaotic,” Watanabe said as he and Miyadate finally left all the problems of the day outside their room. It wasn’t like they tried to ignore them, because they were part of this story from now on as well, but truth was that they felt extremely uncomfortable between all the new faces and quarrels between them.

“I have the feeling we don’t even know ten percent of what is going on in their club and I already have a headache,” Miyadate complained as he dropped on one of the two beds in the room. He closed his eyes immediately, not even bothering with getting out of his clothes or under the sheets. When there was a movement next to him on the mattress he cracked one eye open the moment Watanabe moved from next to him with one knee over his body so that he was sitting on top of him. “Ehm, what are you doing?”

“What does it look like?” Watanabe asked with a raised eyebrow before he leant forward and put his hands next to the latter’s head and leant down to him on which the other one shot him a kind of challenging look.

“Is this really a good timing?” Miyadate asked worried when the older one’s hand landed on the seam of his shirt the same moment he tilted his head to attack the latter’s skin. On his question he backed off a little bit again, but didn’t seem to find it necessary to postpone anything.

“You want to drown in other people’s misery instead? Please feel free to do so, then I will have all the fun on my own. And I have to distract you from a certain someone, because I didn’t miss the looks you’ve given Kamenashi when we first met him!”

On the scolding Miyadate shifted a little bit underneath him and looked at Watanabe in confusion, maybe also a little bit apologizing, even though he would of course not admit that it was true.

“I told you before already that I was just surprised to find someone like him in the Underground.”

“Right...and Domoto is someone who is a usual member of the Underground? Because I doubt you looked at him like that when he burned down your club.”

“That’s completely different! Kamenashi saved our asses if you forgot,” Miyadate scolded him on which Watanabe rolled his eyes and sat up again.

“Yes he did and we all thanked him, but you are still looking at him all the time.”

“Do I hear jealousy?” Miyadate asked with a lopsided smile, but Watanabe didn’t react to his teasing, instead his look darkened a little bit which made Miyadate switch into a more serious mode as well. “Sorry, I didn’t know it bothered you that much. It is really something I am not doing on purpose. It’s not like I am planning on hitting on him or something.”

“Weird, because this is exactly how it seems to me,” Watanabe let out and it made Miyadate feel weird to see him this down all of a sudden. As it seemed like the other one wanted to get off the bed Miyadate took him by the arms and turned them around, settling between the latter’s legs and holding him down on the hips as he tried to turn away.

“Didn’t you just say you wanted to distract me? How are you supposed to do that when you are running away?”

With the way Watanabe’s look turned pouting it seemed like he was the younger one of them and Miyadate couldn’t suppress a small chuckle.

“Don’t you dare to make fun out of me!” Watanabe scolded him and tried to lift a leg to kick him, but he failed as Miyadate moved faster and leant to the front. Before the other one could even complain he had cupped his face and gave him a rushed kiss. For a few seconds it seemed like the other one was too stubborn to give in to it, but Miyadate knew how to handle him and with a little bit patience, biting and liking he finally made the other one take action as well. A hand landed in his hair and their tongues started a fight. It didn’t take long for Watanabe’s hands to be back on Miyadate’s clothes and the conversation seemed to be forgotten for now, after all they wanted distraction, instead of a reminder of how messed up the situation was and exactly that distraction was what they were both willing to give. The serious part of their lives had to wait until the next moment when reality would turn everything back into the black hole they were trapped in for so long already.

***

“Nikaido I warn you! If you don’t sit down I will tie you to the bed,” Ueda warned the younger one who was pacing up and down the room while Ueda had sat down on the bed with his back resting at the wall.

“How the hell are you that calm? They have Taiga for god’s sake! You should be the one storming out the front door first!”

“And do what?”

That actually took Nikaido off guard, after all he wasn’t used to see Ueda that collected when the topic involved Taiga, but when he would calm down and take a closer look he would realize that the calmness he was seeing was actually more a huge protection wall to not do something stupid to risk Taiga’s life.

Nikaido stopped for a brief moment, looking at the older one with a lost stare before he turned towards the door and kicked it with a curse before he moved over to the other bed and sat down. He buried his face in his palms for a moment and after the third sigh he let out Ueda moved towards the edge of his own bed to be able to face Nikaido directly.

“The enemy we are facing this time is way more dangerous than anything we went through until now and you should know the best what that means.”

Ueda’s words made the younger one look up with a worried look, because having an enemy that was more dangerous than Fujigaya was definitely something he wished wouldn’t have happened. “And to be honest since they took Taiga I couldn’t wait to finally come back to the club, because I know I can count on all your support! Of course I didn’t know that things have gone wrong here as well, especially through the tournament and Aran, but can I be selfish for once and ask you to put your personal problems aside for the time being or solve them before we lose anyone else through them? If you are not focused enough in this fight you might lose Kentaro or he might lose you.”

True words and they made Nikaido realize how much of a burden he actually was at the moment, not just to Ueda, but also to all of those who wanted to stop Mugen and the other groups from overtaking the Underground. And here he was talking big about being a former member of the Fire Foxes? He couldn’t even solve his private problems in silence without making a huge ruckus about it.

“I’m sorry.”

It was definitely rare to hear those words from Nikaido and Ueda looked up at him with a confused expression as if he wasn’t sure if he had heard correctly.

“I know that our problems are not the end of the world, but with the threat of Avernus it is a different matter and even though bringing back Taiga is more or less also a private matter I am not as heartless and tell you to put your private matters aside as well. We are talking about rescuing him after all. The only thing I have to rescue is a relationship, not a life.”

On that Ueda formed a brief smile, because those words meant that he was willing to fight for his relationship and that was all he needed to know.

“You will find a way to solve this. I know you both long enough to know that you are too stubborn to talk things out right away, but also not able to stay away from each other for long.”

“We managed quite well for a few days already to stay away from each other actually and after what I did today he might get even better on staying on distance.”

“But in the end he will forgive you and you will forgive him and that is all that matters.”

Feeling how Ueda’s words made him calm down, Nikaido couldn’t deny that he had missed him. After all he had taken all the responsibility parts for the last months. It was good to have someone else to be able to handle things and stay strong next to him while the world around them was collapsing.

“It’s different with us though,” Ueda continued. His look out of a sudden darkening and Nikaido tilted his head.

“Why is that?”

“I am not sure if Taiga will ever forgive me.”

The broken look on Ueda’s face made Nikaido feel uneasy out of a sudden. What was he supposed to say to that? He didn’t even know the whole story, so he couldn’t say if there had been a chance to change things, but he knew that it was definitely not the latter’s fault!

“Don’t be stupid! It’s not like you had the chance to fight to get him back! They are cowards and lured you into a trap. Who could have seen this coming?”

“To be honest the more time passes, the more I feel like I should have seen it coming the first time we met Domoto. I have seen his look towards Taiga and I knew what it meant and still I wasn’t paying enough attention.”

“You can’t guard him 24 hours a day. Don’t fall back to your old self! You know how strong he his. He got this strong through you!”

That made Ueda chuckle, a bitter and defeated sound.

“And here I am sitting around not doing anything to help him. How would he be able to forgive me even if we get him back?”

“Because he loves you and you love him, you idiot!” Nikaido had raised his voice out of a sudden and it made Ueda jolt and sit back a little bit. “Don’t you dare tell me that everything will be alright while you are drowning in self-despair! I will seriously punch you if you keep talking like this. I am sure that Taiga is fighting with all his might at the moment to be able to get back to you, so get a grip and do the same for him! You just told me that you can’t run in there like this, because it is too dangerous for him as well. Then how about you use your strength to make a plan and rely on our help? Didn’t you come back to find us exactly for that?”

Nikaido knew the look Ueda was giving him the next moment. It was the same look he himself had given Massu when he had all of a sudden be the mature one and made him see the obvious things.

“Guess now is the time to say thank you,” Ueda let out kind of embarrassed on which Nikaido couldn’t suppress a small chuckle before he shook his head.

“The same counts for me.”

With that Nikaido shifted back on the bed and lay down, finally calming down and not feeling the need to dash out the door anymore. Things could wait at least until the next morning to get solved. Ueda also got ready to finally take a rest, but Nikaido turned towards him once more.

“Ueda?”

“Mh?”

“Welcome back!” It had been way too late already for that greeting, but somehow Nikaido felt the sudden need to let him know that he was really happy to have him back at his side as well. Ueda cracked a wide smile on that and he nodded.

“Good to be back!”

***

 “Do I have to lock the door?”

“Do I have to punch you to make my point clear?”

It wasn’t like Kamenashi felt offended by Kentaro’s attitude, because he could understand him, but that didn’t mean he would let him run off like this and make things even worse.

“Could you at least try and calm down for a moment and listen?” Kamenashi tried again, but the boy shot him a death glare in return, waiting for the older one to step away from the door, but of course he wouldn’t do him that favor. “Please, Kentaro? I know you are upset, but going on a suicide mission won’t help any of us.”

“Getting after Aran wouldn’t be suicide. He wouldn’t hurt me!”

It didn’t even take a second before he regretted what he said, because Kamenashi opened his mouth to reply, but Kentaro lifted his hands before he could say anything. “Yes I know! Okay, fine he used me to get away, but that’s different. I don’t believe he would have actually hurt me if you had refused to let him go, but of course no one of you was listening to me and now I can’t reach him anymore.”

“You really think he would listen to you at the moment?”

“How should I know? You didn’t give me a chance to talk to him!” Kentaro yelled at the older one, but Kamenashi stayed as calm as before and it made Kentaro almost freak.

“Don’t you think it is time to face things straight on instead of blaming others?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” The boy hissed at him while crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“I am not in the mood to interfere in your relationship problems, but just because you want to run away from the truth about Aran you can’t blame Nikaido for what had happened. He acted as all of us would have. He didn’t do it because it was easy for him, but to protect you and the others.”

“Oh and they were both so dangerous that a normal talk couldn’t have happened first, before he attacked them out of the blue and labeled them traitors?”

Kamenashi let out a sigh, but tried hard to stay calm, because after all they wouldn’t need another argument. Enough of those had happened in one day. “That is exactly what I mean. Kentaro, they are traitors! As much as you want to believe that this is something you can fix, it’s not! They have willingly admitted that they are members of Avernus. They got ready to backstab you as the new fighter did at Myuto’s club and you should thank Fuma for remembering them, because otherwise you would have maybe lost another fighter.”

“They are no killers!” Kentaro yelled again, even though his look had darkened on Kamenashi’s words.

“You thought the same about the West Tokyo Fight Club and now you know that Junta killed Massu on purpose. That the all so nice looking Takizawa had ordered him to do so and you can be really happy that Yara didn’t kill you! Now imagine the same in your club! Aran and Hagiya right next to you and your friends, no one doubting them and then one day they would rob you of another precious friend…”

“Stop it,” Kentaro let out almost as a whisper while he shook his head slowly, but Kamenashi needed to make the boy accept reality.

“Who would you have lost? Juri? Maybe Tegoshi? Imagine if one of them killed Nikaido?”

“I SAID STOP!” Kentaro crouched down on the ground, covering his ears with his hands while his breathes started to come out erratic.

Kamenashi gave him a moment to calm down, before he approached the boy and sat down on his knees in front of him.

“I know you want to talk things out. I understand that after you have found him again after such a long time you don’t want to see him as a dangerous person and I hope that there is a good explanation why he joined Avernus, but for now you should focus on the people close to you, because you have to protect them as well.”

There was no immediate reply, just a long and heavy silence before Kentaro dared to take away his hands and look at the older one. Tears were glittering in his eyes and it didn’t surprise the leader at all, after all he knew that the boy wasn’t acting this stubborn because he was angry at Nikaido, but shocked by Aran’s betrayal.

“It’s just...I can’t accept it this easily,” Kentaro explained. His voice ready to break, but he forced it to stay steady. “I know him better than all of you and I- I can’t believe that he would betray me like this. After all we went through together, after I...let him come this close again, this is the end of the story?”

“Maybe not the end, but definitely a turning point. You are hurt beyond return through Aran’s betrayal. Maybe now you can understand how Nikaido feels?”

Those words finally made something break inside Kentaro, because yes he could completely understand how much his own betrayal must have hurt the older one. With a shuddering breath Kentaro closed his eyes, but couldn’t stop the first tears from leaving his eyes the moment he fell to the front and buried his face in his hands.

Kamenashi shifted closer and pulled the boy into his arms and finally Kentaro’s rage seemed to be gone completely and was replaced by despair as his cries turned louder in the latter’s arms.

“Kentaro, no one is blaming you for feeling the way you do, but that doesn’t mean that you can ignore how everyone else is feeling! I guess you have understood my point? Please tell me that you will rest for tonight so we can all have a talk in the morning?”

There was a sniff instead of a reply and a nodding movement of his head against the latter’s chest, which made the older one smile, because this was the Kentaro he knew. The boy which had been in a state of despair and loss when they had first met and still he had been fighting for the person he loved with all his might at that time and Kamenashi was sure that he would do the same once more!


	6. Chapter 6

The smile Taiga formed when the door opened the next morning after Domoto had left the room quite early and without saying another word about what happened the evening before, seemed kind of unreal to himself, because it was the first time he felt that relaxed since he had been brought here. Even weirder was that the person who had actually brought him here was now able to make such a smile appear on his face.

“Okay, do I have to worry?” Reo asked him with a skeptical look as he closed the door and put Taiga’s breakfast to the side before he sat down on the bed in front of the boy who shifted to the back to make room for him. Reo moved slowly, almost careful and it made Taiga eye him a little bit worried, but for now he ignored it.

“About what?”

“Your mood? Did he drug you with something now to make you obedient?”

That actually made Taiga laugh, which made Reo raise an eyebrow at him before he leant to the front to touch the boy’s forehead. Taiga slashed it away with a scolding look, even though it was clear that he wasn’t angry.

“I am not drugged and I am also not getting a fever. Am I not allowed to feel relaxed for once?”

“If it happened without any bad influence than I guess yes?”

This time it was Taiga who moved and he hit Reo on the forehead on which the boy flinched slightly to the back, putting his own hand to his forehead. He tilted his head in confusion, because he still didn’t seem to be able to make sense out of Taiga’s actions.

“You know exactly that my mood is thanks to you.”

“It is? I just told you to snap out of it. What the hell did you do to get in that mood after it?”

“Oh come on even if you want to make me believe that you didn’t send Saku to me on purpose instead of any of your other hundreds of members, we both know that you did it on purpose.”

“Oh, that…” Reo replied kind of absentminded and it somehow surprised Taiga that Reo wouldn’t even try to hide it. He really seemed to have forgotten about it like he had different things to worry about at the moment.

“Are you okay?” Taiga asked worried as he shifted a bit towards the boy, taking a closer look at him. But while Reo leant back for a brief moment on that move he narrowed his eyes out of a sudden.

“Guess I should ask you instead.”

“What do you mean?”

Instead of an answer Reo pulled him closer on the shirt all of a sudden, but when Taiga realized what he meant it was already too late because Reo had pulled the metal collar up, revealing the red marks Domoto had left on his skin the evening before.

“What the hell is this?”

“The result of me pissing off Domoto? Why are you so shocked, it’s not like you haven’t done way crueler things to me.”

It wasn’t meant in an offending way, but of course the boy’s look changed to guilty right away and he let go of Taiga again and sat back, but when he let out a small hiss on his own move Taiga raised an eyebrow at him. Reo seemed to feel caught all of a sudden and tried to get back to his poker face, but Taiga was able to connect the dots and sat up on his knees, reaching out for the seam of Reo’s shirt.

“What are you doing?” Reo complained and tried to make him let go, but his struggling resulted in another pained sound as Taiga’s hand landed on his stomach as he tried to lift the boy’s shirt and when he succeeded he froze.

“You want to explain this?” Taiga asked scolding, because why was Reo allowed to worry about his injuries while he tried to hide his own? There were a few cuts over Reo’s stomach up to his chest and Taiga didn’t even need to ask what had been used to make those cuts or who had brought them on his body. “He actually punished you for interrupting us the other day?” Taiga asked in disbelieve, but the way Reo looked away just proved his point. “He is truly insane.”

“When you know that how come you provoked him again after you were in such a bad state of mind after what you had to do to your friends?”

“I needed to test his limits. I knew that your attack had failed, because I had never seen him this pissed and I wanted to see what was behind that mask.”

“Better don’t do it again. Trust me, the injury you carry is nothing compared to what can happen if he loses it completely.”

And of course the boy was speaking out of experience, but Taiga didn’t want to ask for details, not now at least.

“It was something I could still handle. I can still bend as you have said and even if I have to...wait, how did you know they were my friends?” Taiga changed the topic out of a sudden and looked at Reo with wide eyes.

“Did you forget who you are talking to? I know more than Domoto does, because I am the one getting all the information together he needs. I know everything about the clubs in Tokyo and all over Japan, also about your friends or the Titanium Triangle, which was by the way the reason why our attack failed. The Fire Foxes interfered in our attack and we had to retreat. They seem to have gotten a new leader? Because we weren’t in Tokyo for a long time my information seem to lack a little bit, because I heard that Kitayama is their new leader, but no one could actually tell me what exactly happened to Fujigaya.”

On that Taiga escaped a chuckle, because after all that was something he could explain perfectly. “Seems like my information are more than yours this time. I can explain you exactly what happened to him!”

The way Taiga seemed kind of proud through having more information than Reo for once the boy seemed to feel challenged and he punched Taiga against the shoulder.

“Don’t you get cocky now, just because I don’t know something for once,” Reo replied teasingly on which Taiga shoved the boy to the back a little bit on the shoulders with the same teasing attitude.

“Oh, do I hear someone pouting? Our little spy’s birds didn’t fly fast enough this time to give him the information he needs.”

“Is that a challenge?” Reo asked with a raised eyebrow and Taiga just stuck out his tongue instead of answering on which Reo jumped up on his knees, moving carefully so that he wouldn’t cause any damage to his own injury.  He tried to get a grip on Taiga who tried to twist away as Reo was obviously trying to tickle him.

“Please, don’t…,” Taiga let out between trying to stop laughing, but of course that made Reo try to find the most sensitive spots at the other’s upper body.

“Oh, giving up that easily? Didn’t you want a challenge?”

“Fine, I give up. I give up!” Taiga shouted at him while he had almost turned completely on his stomach while Reo was sitting on top of him already. But when he turned on his back Reo’s look had changed a little bit. The teasing attitude slowly changed into something else as he looked at Taiga with an intense stare. Taiga couldn’t explain why, but he felt like Reo had looked at him like that before, when he hadn’t been able to see it and as he had already seen it coming Reo leant down, but Taiga held him up on the shoulders.

“If you know so much, then you should know about my private life as well, right?”

Reo halted on his words, but he still didn’t back off and his look was hard to interpret. “Yes I do, I’ve watched you long enough.”

“You watched us?”

“Of course. I needed to find a good timing to attack and for that I had to follow you around.”

Which meant that Reo was aware of their relationship for sure, but it didn’t seem to make him feel like his actions were inappropriate though. “But knowing about it doesn’t change what I feel.”

There he had a point, Taiga couldn’t deny that. On the other hand Taiga needed to make clear that it wasn’t the same for him, but somehow he never found the will to push the boy away too harshly. Was he afraid of making him return to be his enemy? Or was it just the sympathy? Because after all he could imagine how hard it must be to hide behind that perfect smile every day without being able to trust or feel secure around someone.

Before Taiga could reply something though Reo sat up and released him. With the next move he was off the bed and pointed at the tray he had brought.

“You should eat. I have the feeling Domoto is up to something after the plan failed yesterday and who knows if he wants to involve you in his new plans, because he made me research about your club. I had to tell him that you and Ueda are from the North Tokyo Fight Club and he will definitely take that information to his advantage, so you should get all the energy together you can get.”

“Reo, wait!” Taiga shouted after him as the boy was so fast at the door that it almost seemed like he was running away. But he actually stopped on Taiga’s words and turned around to him with one of his perfect masks. It kind of hurt to see him wearing those masks in front of him, but it was something that protected the boy from getting hurt after all. “When I said I am always here for you, I meant it! Please don’t forget that! I am sorry that I can’t give you all the support you need, but please don’t retreat, okay? I don’t want you to suffer all on your own.”

It didn’t surprise him when Reo formed a smile on that, because it was one of his typical reactions, even though the pain was still visible behind that smile.

“Thank you,” he said before he left the room. Taiga wasn’t sure if he had really listened to him or not, but before he could even think about running after him the lock of the door was heard, of course. He could just hope that Reo wouldn’t try to go on distance again, but on the other hand maybe they both needed to stay away from each other for some time. Not just to get clear about where they were standing, but also to not make anyone even more suspicious.

***

The next morning the situation had calmed down finally and except for Myuto and the other club members and of course Fuma everyone was told to leave for now. Kentaro had a brief talk with Myuto and of course with Kento and the others before he did so. Promising them that they would somehow take care of this mess before things could escalate completely he left with Ueda and the others.

Kitayama had explained that he would have his members out on patrol to make sure no attack could happen without their notice and the Exposers did the same.

Back at the North Tokyo Fight Club Ueda was the first who got a lot of questions thrown at him, but Nakai needed to talk to him as well so Tegoshi explained the situation to Juri, Kochi and the other fighters. They had all gathered in the training room first, but now they followed Tegoshi to the common room for the explanation, leaving Nikaido and Kentaro alone.

A heavy since followed, but it seemed like both of them didn't want to leave like that.

Kentaro walked over to one of the punching bags and stroke with his hand over the already ripped surface. Even though he couldn't see the older one he knew that he was watching him.

“I am sorry if I made you angry.”

Kentaro froze on those words, because after all he had intended to apologize.

“I know how important Aran is to you and I can't judge you for defending him.”

When silence followed Kentaro finally dared to turn around. “But?”

“No but, that's how it is and I won't be able to change that. I know I robbed you of the chance to clear things out right away. It will be hard to get to him now, to get an explanation for what he did, but I won't stop you if you try. You have every right to try and find out what is going on.”

It was the defeat he could see in the latter's eyes which scared him beyond return. It seemed like he wanted to set him free from being chained down, but that wasn't how he felt and how he didn't want the latter to feel.

“I can't deny that I'm angry, but I can't judge you for your decision. You wanted to protect us and after all he is a traitor as much as I don't want to admit it.” Kentaro dared to make another step towards the older one, but Nikaido’s look didn't soften.

“But I can't run after him while I have to set things right here first.”

Kentaro took a deep breath, but before he kept talking the door opened revealing Ueda who told Nikaido to enter the meeting with Nakai. He looked at them kind of apologizing, because he had of course realized that his timing was the worst and he told Nikaido to come as fast as possible. When the door fell shut again Nikaido turned towards the door, but was stopped by two hands wrapping around his wrist. Kentaro hadn't even realized when he had walked up to him, but now that he did, it felt like an eternity that he had touched him and he kept staring at the latter's arm.

“Anything else you want to say?” Nikaido asked in a neutral voice and that actually gave the boy a shiver. No this wasn't how he could make things work out again. Even if his words reached Nikaido the latter wouldn't accept them at the moment. There was a distance between them which couldn't be crossed with just words.

“Meet me here in the evening at the regular time for our private lesson,” Kentaro let out and rushed passed the other one before he could voice out a reply.

It was his only chance to go back to what they were and he had to make clear that as much as he had treasured Aran before and as stupid he was for getting this carried away, there was nothing and no one who could give him the same as Nikaido did and Kentaro was determined to remind both of them of the bound they shared.

***

“Fuma, what are you doing?”

“What does it seem like, I am sitting up,” Fuma replied as Kento shot up right away when Fuma moved. “Calm down, would you? I am not trying to jump around. I just need a change of positions once in a while. Damn, I am not sure how Kentaro survived the time when he had to lie around all the time with his wound.”

“But because he did it he was fine in the end, so would you do the same?”

On that Fuma raised an eyebrow at him and Kento knew what he wanted to say before he even opened his mouth. “Okay I know, in the end he was reckless again, but it was for Nikaido’s sake! But I am here right next to you, so would you not make me worry even more?”

“Guess for that we would have to go back home and that won’t be so easy with the Storm Warriors and all those other crazy troops out there at the moment.”

On Fuma’s words Kento’s eyes fell on Sou who was sleeping on the couch in the room once more. After all he had helped with treating Myuto’s fight club members for the whole day, which surprised Kento, because there was no need for him to interfere. No one would be angry if he ignored the situation around him, after all he got dragged into this mess without even wanting to be part of it. But nevertheless he did everything he could to help. But now that it was evening again exhaustion had finally forced him to take a break.

Kamenashi had taken a look at Fuma’s wound as well, but of course the boy needed to rest for longer to make sure that the wound would be fine in the end. He was really surprised that Fuma was already able to sit up and be awake most of the day, because the blood loss would have made someone else unable to move for a few days.

When Kamenashi said that Taiga had definitely taken the risk knowing that Fuma was tough enough to survive it the atmosphere had tensed all of a sudden. Knowing that this was something he couldn’t help with Kamenashi had excused himself and now both boys were deep in their thoughts.

“You are worried for him, aren’t you?” Fuma asked after a while and he tried to somehow find a better position on which Kento helped him to put the pillows up a bit more so he could sit up.

With a sigh he fell back on the chair. “I’m worried for Taiga and also for Sou and what will happen to him and his family from now on. Not to mention the whole chaos in our club. The mess Nikaido and Kentaro are in again…”

“Okay, I don’t want to know the details about that to be honest, but as I know those two, they will fix things in the end. At least that Aran is gone, right? Kamenashi said he fled with Hagiya, but better this way then if we got backstabbed by them.”

Kento just nodded, because of course Kentaro wouldn’t see it that way, but that was his burden and they couldn’t take that off his shoulders.

When Kento fell silent for a while once more Fuma reached out for him and lifted up his chin with one hand on which the boy flinched a little bit.

“You don’t have to feel guilty,” Fuma let out and even though Kento knew what he was talking about, he was astonished once more how much Fuma had changed. A few months ago he would never have been able to read him that easily. “Ryosuke’s and Keito’s death is not your fault. No one of us is at fault for that! Just those freaking Avernus bastards and as soon as I am able to fight again I will kick their asses for that!”

On that Kento formed a brief smile, kind of teasing, but also with a lot of sorrow in it. “Won’t you leave the fighting to the others this time?”

“For now I guess I have no other choice anyways, but as soon as I am fine again-”

“Please Fuma, just because we got dragged in this once more, doesn’t mean we have to take part in the mess from now on as well,” Kento interrupted him as he took his hand in his and squeezed it with a worried look.

Right, Fuma had left the Underground for Kento’s sake and if the boy didn’t want to fight he had to accept his decision. But was it really okay like this? Because even though Kento’s look showed a lot of worry it also showed his sorrow over Ryosuke’s death. It was clear that he couldn’t deal with the outcome and he would blame it on his interference with the Storm Warriors in the first place, even though the outcome would have been the same anyway.

“When you don’t want me to fight, I will stand back.”

Those words were the last Kento thought of hearing from Fuma, especially with that determination in his eyes.

“I- don’t know what I want, to be honest,” Kento let out in a low voice, on which Fuma put his other hand over Kento’s. He could feel how he was slightly shaking, but he tried to show him an encouraging smile, even though he was a little bit lost at the moment himself. As always he would love to fight, but he also wanted to make sure that Kento was okay. Both of them still needed some time to adapt to the new situation.

“Let’s rest for now, okay? You also need some sleep and in a few days when things have calmed down again and Ueda and the others have decided how to proceed from now on we will make our decision, is that okay for you?”

Kento nodded and wanted to get up, but Fuma tightened the grip on his hand and pulled him on the bed.

“Fuma…”

“I don’t want to hear any complains! The bed is spacious enough and I doubt you want to reject any of my requests at the moment. After all I am hurt and need your comfort, right?”

Kento hit him on the forehead on that and Fuma let out a chuckle before he pulled Kento down even more and finally the older one stopped resisting and dropped with his head on the pillow right next to Fuma who slid down on the pillows a little bit as well until he was able to place a kiss on Kento’s hair.

“It will be alright! It always was alright in the end,” Fuma let out while putting an arm around Kento’s shoulder and the latter rested his head on his arm with a sigh.

“I wonder if we will reach the end of all this suffering and fear all together or if we are doomed to lose even more friends on the way.”

“I said it before and I mean it, I won’t let any other of my friends die! And even if I can’t fight active this time, I will make sure to support them where I can and I trust Kentaro and the others, they will watch each other’s’ backs!”

Fuma felt how Kento nodded against his arm, but he had his eyes closed. Once more Fuma placed a kiss on his head and closed his eyes as well.

“They are our family and we have to protect them, right?”

A chuckle from Kento was a reply before the older one searched blindly for his hand to entwine their fingers. “And we will protect them, no matter what!”


	7. Chapter 7

“Can’t sleep?” Watanabe asked as he walked inside the common room with Miyadate the moment he heard voices inside even though it was already pretty late. When they stepped in they found Ueda, Juri and Kochi at a table, but Juri almost jumped up on Watanabe’s words and who could blame him with everything that was going on? They were all quite jumpy, but the death glare Kochi gave him on that reaction seemed a little bit too much in his opinion. But who was he to interfere? After all he didn’t even know them.

They joined Ueda and the others at the table while Juri was pouting at Kochi. Ueda hid his face in his palms for a moment and exhaled deeply before he dropped back against the chair.

“What were you talking about?” Miyadate asked carefully. It wasn’t like he wanted to start an interrogation or anything, but what else than small talk could they do to distract themselves?

“Nothing important, I just explained the situation to them with a few more details,” Ueda explained and the other two boys nodded.

“So I guess you are friends of Taiga as well?” Watanabe addressed them on which both boys nodded right away.

“I just can’t believe how our club members always end up in the biggest mess? It’s like there is a huge black shadow following us around the whole time.” Kochi explained serious.

“Good choice of words to explain your situation,” Miyadate replied, because after all he had learned so far it really seemed like the North Tokyo Fight Club was gathering the bad luck of this whole city.

“Did Nakai already say anything of how the fight clubs are going to procced from now on?” Watanabe asked, but Ueda shook his head.

“They have a meeting at the moment, but without knowing what Avernus is up to it is hard to form a good plan ourselves. We don’t know if they will just strike again and try their luck with another fight club or if they actually try to come up with another tactic.”

“Which would be?” Kochi asked kind of curious.

“Trying to approach the Titanium Triangle once more? What I heard so far the Storm Warriors are not that easy to talk to, but now that Mugen is back as well they have Domoto and trust me, when I tell you that he can be really convincing.”

“And scary,” Juri replied. First everyone just nodded before Miyadate and Watanabe blinked in confusion and suddenly all eyes were on him.

“How do you know that?” Miyadate asked and tilted his head, but Juri shook his head.

“I don’t, how should I? But after everything we heard about him and his troop it looks like he is a really scary person. And he is, right?”

Sure they couldn’t deny that and Miyadate nodded before his attention was on Ueda again, because the latter seemed to almost fall asleep in a sitting position and he shook him on the shoulder. “You should really go to bed for now. It won’t help anyone if you run around this exhausted all the time.”

“I know, but I just can’t get my head clear enough to sleep more than a few hours.”

“Then take the chance and sleep those few hours now, because we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Every day could mean the next big chaos,” Miyadate added and Ueda nodded.

“We will also get some rest for now,” Kochi said suddenly and got up. Juri looked at him kind of confused, but followed his example.

“We should also go get some rest,” Miyadate added and Watanabe was up as well the next moment.

“Guess then it’s good night for all of us,” Kochi added with a brief smile, the first he finally flashed at them and the boys nodded, leaving the room first, but Miyadate turned towards them in the doorframe. “Make sure that he really goes to bed.”

“No worry, we will escort him ourselves if necessary,” Kochi teased and Ueda rolled his eyes, but got ready to leave as well.

***

Kentaro couldn’t even remember when he was that nervous before. Maybe he had never been that nervous in his entire life. Sure when he had met Nikaido in the beginning he was nervous each time they were left alone in a room, but that was out of complete different reasons.

This time he had decided to stake everything on one card, even if he risked losing everything for good. But he couldn’t keep running away from reality like this. He had hurt Nikaido and Aran had hurt him. But while both problems were connected to each other, solving them needed two completely different approaches and while he could just drown in despair about Aran’s still not clearly understandable betrayal he could at least try and get his life back on track in matters of his relationship. Because even though Aran had basically stabbed a knife into his chest it felt completely different than the knife Nikaido stabbed into it through standing on distance and not making clear how he wants to proceed from now on.

Aran’s knife hit his chest, but Nikaido’s knife directly into his heart and that was the difference. Now that he had finally accepted that even though his feelings for Aran hadn’t changed that much, but his feelings for Nikaido were just something completely different, more intense and unreachable for anyone else, Kentaro needed to fight for everything they had built up together before it would be too late!

The moment the door of the training room was heard Kentaro finally stopped pacing up and down between the ring and the wall, his eyes now fixed on Nikaido.

The older one stepped inside with a neutral expression, as he wore it all the time over the last days when he stood in front of Kentaro and it hurt so much that the boy would have actually loved to scream at him and shook him by the collar, but that wasn’t the way things were working between them. Making Nikaido see how he felt about the situation needed other methods or to be more direct just one, the only thing Kentaro was confident enough about to make Nikaido see what he couldn’t express in words.

“So you wanted to talk?” Nikaido asked after a while, but Kentaro shook his head and dared to step closer, but there was still a lot of distance between them. Way more than he ever wanted to have between them.

“I told you everything I needed to say already and I know that there is nothing else you want to hear, so all I am asking you to do is watch. You can decide for yourself if this will be the last time for you to see it or not.”

For a brief moment Kentaro’s words didn’t seem to make sense to him, but then Kentaro stepped towards the middle of the room which changed Nikaido’s expression immediately. He understood right away and when he moved to his usual spot at the side of the ring to sit down Kentaro’s heart seemed to make some irregular jumps in relief about Nikaido accepting his offer and deciding to watch.

“You don’t want to choose a song?” Nikaido asked when Kentaro moved into his start position with nothing but silence surrounding them.

“For what I have to show you there is no music needed. I want you to watch me, only me!”

Music would be just a distraction for now and suddenly there was a change on Nikaido’s face, some shine in his eyes, which could almost get called dangerous, but Kentaro knew better. It was that look which meant that Nikaido was serious about something and it gave Kentaro the positive input he needed to start moving. Looking at him that way meant that Nikaido hadn’t given up either and that he was willing to fight for them.

With steady steps Kentaro moved through the room. The absence of the music showing him the rhythm couldn’t distract him at all. His heartbeat was everything he needed to make his body move the way he wanted to. After all this was no standard choreography he was performing to show off, but a dance of emotions. His own body struggling with doubt, sorrow, fear and hope, bringing all those emotions to the surface with every single step, each movement of his arms and each new breath he took.

Without actually knowing his next move his dancing looked extremely different from usual, almost sloppy, but also more absorbing, which made Nikaido spend even more attention as he leant to the front his eyes fixed on the boy. It wasn’t like Kentaro stopped to take a look, but of course he didn’t miss the intense stare and a shiver ran through his body, tension taking over it all of a sudden. What if he failed? What if it wasn’t enough to make clear how he felt or if what he felt wasn’t enough for Nikaido in the first place?

His distraction resulted in one of his turns failing and he stumbled, falling on his side with a hiss. He faced the wall, so he didn’t know if Nikaido had reacted to it or not, but that didn’t matter to him. It wasn’t his sympathy he wanted, also not pity, all he wanted at the moment was to make clear how he felt! After that, Nikaido was free to give him a finally answer, but there was no way he would let it end like this.

Kentaro got up again, but lifted the weight off his left foot right away as he realized that he had hurt his ankle through the wrong twist. For a moment he closed his eyes and let silence take over the room, before he heard a sound, but he was sure that it wasn’t coming from Nikaido. Then he realized that it came from himself. He was crying. And damn he didn’t want to cry! But the tears were streaming down his face nonstop and with his heavy breathing through the dancing he also couldn’t stop some sobs from escaping him.

He bit his under lip to stop it from shaking before he dared to take one more deep and shaky breath. With a determined look he turned around again, getting back into his start position, but just for a brief moment he let his eyes closed.

“I won’t let it end like this,” he whispered to himself before he flung his eyes open and moved to the erratic sound of his heart beat, not thinking of the past happenings or what could happen from now on. This dance was for the moment! And just for Nikaido! It didn’t matter what happened before or was going to happen after it!

It wasn’t clear anymore how long he kept dancing and even though his leg hurt and his breathing got heavier he knew there was no way he would stop before he felt like he had shown him what he couldn’t say. That he loved Nikaido more than he had ever loved anyone else in his life! That there was no way he could forget about what he had with Aran and that what they did was a mistake, but that he didn’t want this one mistake to throw them both back into a black hole, especially because they had both found out of their darkest parts of their lives through each other! That he couldn’t go on without him!

As if his own heart had stopped beating his movements stopped in a last position, his hands tightly clenched over his chest with his upper body leaning to the front so that his hair was hiding his eyes. The only sound that was heard in the room was his erratic breathing, mixed with his still not ending sobs. But now he didn’t mind them anymore. Also the tears didn’t bother him.

“I love you…” he whispered, even though he had thought there was no need for words anymore, but maybe his fear of having failed made him speak his mind as a last resort. “I don’t want to continue this path without you...I- I can’t go on without you…” His words were swallowed by sobs and he wasn’t even sure if Nikaido could understand him, but he still refused to crumble completely, after all he needed to hear his answer.

There was a way too long moment of silence following and the tension filling the room was enough to crush him. Then there was a sound, finally. Steps, getting closer and Kentaro didn’t even have time to blink away the tears when his head was lifted up almost forcefully and his next sob was swallowed by a passionate kiss.

It took him a felt eternity to realize what was happening and the touch of Nikaido’s fingers on his skin, wiping away his tears made his knees feel extremely weak out of a sudden. This time it was Nikaido’s turn to tell Kentaro how he felt, to give him his reply, but as the boy he chose a way without words and Kentaro couldn’t thank him more for such a clear answer.

Finally able to catch up with the situation Kentaro dared to move his shaking hands to the latter’s face as well and one hand found its way to his hair immediately while the other one remained on his cheek, caressing it carefully as if he couldn’t believe that he was that lucky, that he actually got the respond he was hoping for so badly.

Kentaro tried desperately to deepen the kiss and he succeeded for a moment, letting Nikaido take full control of it and a new shiver filled his body when Nikaido let one hand travel down to Kentaro’s back to pull him closer while he tilted his head to change the angle. The support his hand gave him was what he needed to not melt completely, but if he wanted to or not he needed to back off, because while his tears had stopped his sobs still hadn’t and his lungs were complaining a lot about the denied oxygen.

When they pulled apart Nikaido cupped the boy’s face and put his forehead down against his. The touch made Kentaro close his eyes while he tried to get his breathing pace back to normal.

“I love you too and I won’t be able to live without you either!”

This time it felt like his senses were completely giving up on him, because the sound of Nikaido’s voice seemed so unreal, so broken.

“You apologized and I accepted that apology, but what you showed me today was exactly what I needed to see to be able to trust you again. I need you as much as you need me and who are we kidding, we both made a lot of mistakes to this point and there is no guarantee that we won’t hit rock bottom again at some point, but what is important is that we are both still willing to fight for each other! Today you showed me that you will keep fighting for me, for us!”

Nikaido backed off just enough to be able to look at the boy who lifted his head slowly, his heartbeat now slowly getting back to a regular rhythm, even though it seemed to skip a beat when he looked into Nikaido’s eyes.

“Thank you for not giving up on us, for fighting instead of hiding,” Nikaido said as he wiped away a new tear from Kentaro’s face.

Instead of giving the older one an answer Kentaro leant in for another kiss and Nikaido met him halfway for it already. This time they were able to deepen it faster and keep the contact longer, which made Kentaro’s body feel completely relaxed and secure all of a sudden. For a while he had thought he would never be able to feel like this again, but once more they had proven how they were able to turn everything around once more and step back from the abyss hand in hand, to make sure that none of them would fall.

“I love you,” Kentaro let out once more when they pulled apart once more and this time Nikaido chuckled and formed a brief smile. It would maybe take some time for his brightest smile to return, but it was more than Kentaro could ask for anyway. Just seeing him smile at him once more gave him the biggest butterflies in his stomach he ever felt.

“I'm not sure if we are healthy for each other when we continue like this, but to be honest I wouldn't change it for anything in the world.”

“Nika…” Kentaro let out almost proud, because who else would risk getting hurt over and over again just to be with someone? Yes they had to do something about that routine of throwing each other into hell once in a while, but they knew they would figure it out. After all the other one was willingly following to hell if it was necessary to pull the other one up again.

“Let's take this slow, okay? We have so much trouble at the moment that it is really good that we solved this, but now other things are our priority.”

“Definitely,” Kentaro replied with a nod, because his thoughts were at Taiga nonstop over the last days. And as much as he needed to talk to Aran there was no way he would make that his priority after everything that happened, but that also didn't mean he would forget about it!

“There is actually one really urgent thing I've to talk to you about. It might sound a little bit stupid and paranoid, but…”

“They weren't the only ones,” Nikaido interrupted him and Kentaro blinked at him.

“You think so as well? But I don't want to doubt them… I can't have more people betray our trust… “

Nikaido wanted to reach out for his cheek when his look darkened, but then the door opened and he pulled back.

“Whups, guess that was a really bad timing,” Miyadate apologized as he stopped in the doorframe with Watanabe behind him, looking curiously over his shoulder.

“I'd say a few minutes earlier would have been worse,” he added and Nikaido and Kentaro weren't angry at them for interrupting, because yes Watanabe was right, better now than a few minutes ago. Nikaido might have skinned them alive then.

“All good, don't worry. We were about to leave anyways. You are not planning on training now do you?” Kentaro asked, but Miyadate shook his head and walked over to the table and snatched away a bottle.

“We just realized that we ran out of water, but we didn't want to go back to the common room.”

“Even though it might have been better, because I have the feeling Ueda will fall asleep in a sitting position after all. Even with Juri and Kochi together they won't be able to carry him to bed if he doesn't want to,” Watanabe added.

“Wait, those three are at the common room at the moment?” Kentaro asked extremely worried all of a sudden and when Watanabe nodded Kentaro shot a look at Nikaido, but the latter was already moving.

“What's going on, where are you going?” Miyadate yelled after them as they dashed out the door. He didn't even need to ask Watanabe, because the latter was running after them right away. “What the hell is going on?” Miyadate growled, but took a tight grip on the water bottle before he ran after them.

They heard a loud impact just when they passed around the corner to the common room and they sped up right away.

Nikaido dashed inside first, with Kentaro stopping behind him with a gasp.

He didn't want to be right. He couldn't deal with it being true, so instead of reacting he had frozen to the spot.

Before Nikaido could react the two other boys had finally caught up to them as well and looked towards Ueda in confusion, before it turned into a shock.

“What…?” Watanabe was way too confused to even ask what was going on, because Ueda on the ground with a stab wound on the side of his ribs was already bad enough, but Kochi standing in front of him with a blood strained knife was not that easily explained. Juri was getting back on his feet after a chair had been tossed at him as it seemed. As tired as Ueda was he seemed to not have seen coming Kochi’s sudden attack, but he had tried to at least get out of their reach after that. Unfortunately his wound was bad enough to force him to the ground after he had attacked.

While Juri seemed to hesitate Kochi didn't halt his next attack. He didn't even seem to feel caught by the others and launched himself to the front again.

Nikaido wanted to dash forward even though he knew he wouldn't make it, but then he flinched when something passed by his head. It was the water bottle and the next moment it shattered at Kochi's head, making the boy crumble unconsciously to the ground. The next to move was Juri who tried to get the knife from his friend, but Watanabe was faster and dashed forward kicking Juri to the ground. Without any hesitation he pulled him around on his stomach and hit him with his elbow on the neck. With that both boys were out for now, but their attention was on Ueda when the latter turned to his side with a pained groan before he started coughing, blood leaving his mouth.

“Damn, how the hell could this happen?” Miyadate hissed while Nikaido and Kentaro finally moved. Nikaido crouched down next to the older one and helped him up a little bit so that he could rest on his legs.

“Sorry, I didn't expect this to happen. I had no reason to doubt them,” Ueda let out in a weak voice, but Kentaro shook his head.

“I should have said something earlier. I had a feeling that something was off since the tournament, but…”

“Kentaro, no one is blaming this on you!” Nikaido interrupted him firmly. “I had my doubts as well, especially after the other two turned out to be traitors already.”

A pained cough from Ueda brought their attention back to him.

“Miyadate would you go with Kentaro and get Miyata? He is not in the club this late, but he lives close by, but I can't let Kentaro go alone.”

“No problem, let's go!” Miyadate said and was on his way to the door right away. After all he didn't want to lose Ueda either. Even over such a short time he had built up a lot of respect for the man.

“We are right back, please stay strong?” Kentaro begged his trainer and the latter gave him a nod.

“As if I could die before I kicked Domoto’s ass for taking Taiga away from me.”

“You are not going to die after that either,” Nikaido scolded him and slapped him on the shoulder.

Kentaro was up the next second and soon the two boys were gone.

“Watanabe would you make sure that those two won't get away as soon as they wake up? We let Aran and Hagiya get away already, this time I need answers.”

“Oh trust me I'll make sure those two will give us all the answers you need,” Watanabe let out with such a hate showing in his eyes that Nikaido wasn't sure if he could leave Watanabe alone with them. But who could blame him? He had went through a lot with Mugen already and now there were more and more traitors showing up, hurting the people which had helped him along the way. And as long as he demanded answers as well there was no way he'd be as reckless and kill them.

“Guess we finally caught the black shadow,” Watanabe let out in a monologue as he looked at Kochi and Juri with a hateful glare.


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning Domoto left their room for an urgent meeting with the Dancing Rascals, which was the official troop name of the West Tokyo Fight Club as Reo had told him.

But after a while Reo came to Taiga's surprise and told him to follow him. He was happy that Reo didn't need to use the chains, because the collar was embarrassing enough for him when he stood in front of Takizawa and Yara. There were two other boys next to them, which he hadn't seen until now and suddenly one of them looked up at him. He couldn't tell why, but somehow it seemed like he knew who Taiga was, but why was his look so broken?

“Taiga, please come over here,” Domoto addressed him and Reo pushed him slightly as he didn't want to move closer to the chair Domoto was sitting on. And what was with the please part? It wasn't like he needed to ask him. As if he could say no without a punishment anyway.

“I just got informed that one more of my plans failed, what are you saying to that?”

Okay this was definitely a test, Taiga was sure of that. After he had pissed him off before he wanted to make sure that Taiga had learnt his lesson. But that actually fueled Taiga's anger even more and he was close to let out a snappy reply again, but he held back at the last moment.

“Then I guess you need a new plan,” Taiga let out neutral and Domoto nodded before he faced the two boys which were shifting nervously.

“What about them?”

“What about them?” Taiga repeated the question, not understanding the man's intention.

“My plan failed because of them, because they weren't careful enough. Don't you think they need to get punished?”

Taiga held his breath on that, because why was he asking him of all people? He looked at the two boys again and while the blonde one seemed not at all surprised by Domoto’s words the grey hairs boy was still looking at Taiga. His look was almost telling him that he would accept any punishment, because he deserved it.

Domoto snapped his fingers and it was Reo who moved, vanishing off stage for a moment just to come back with the one item which still gave Taiga shivers. But when Reo wanted to hand the whip to Domoto the leader pointed at Taiga. “Let Taiga do it.”

Reo turned to Taiga with an apologizing look and held out the whip to him, but as expected Taiga shook his head right away.

“Are you sure you want to refuse?” Domoto asked in a dangerous tone, but there was no way Taiga would go that far. This was a direction he couldn't bend to.

“I'm not going to hurt them,” Taiga let out confident.

When Domoto rose to his feet on that the two boys in front of him stepped back, but with Takizawa and Yara being next to them there was no way they'd actually try to run.

With one of his calm smiles he approached Reo and stretched out his hand. The boy handed him the whip and stepped back. Silence followed for a moment while Domoto faced the two boys in front of him with a calm expression. Taiga had frozen to the spot, his eyes also fixed on the boys, which made him jolt even more when Domoto lifted the whip and slashed it down towards his direction instead. It hit him on the leg and with a pained yelp he landed on one knee.

“As I see you are getting back to your rebellious self. Seems like I need to teach you another lesson.”

Domoto took a few steps closer until he could grab Taiga by the hair to lift his head up. The boy gritted his teeth, not willing to show how much he feared a new game of his.

“I give you one more chance,” Domoto let out and held out the whip to him, but of course Taiga didn't take it.

“I see,” was all Domoto said before he released the boy and went back to the other two boys.

Suddenly someone else approached them from the back of the stage and stopped next to Reo, whispering something in his ear. When he left again Reo walked up to Domoto to give him the message he just received. The part that made Taiga almost jump up though was the way Domoto shamelessly pulled him closer on the hip when he whispered something in his ear. He didn't care if other people were around or not, for him Reo was just a toy and it made him even angrier how Reo seemed totally fine with it even when Domoto’s hand traveled lower than it should.

“Mh, this fight club is really interesting,” Domoto let out in amusement when he released Reo who stepped back more than necessary. That actually showed Taiga that he wasn't fine at all with the way Domoto treated him, but there was no way he could easily go against him.

“You two are free to go,” Domoto announced all of a sudden which even confused Takizawa and Yara. “Takizawa I guess two of your fighters won't easily make it back as those two. I just got informed that Juri and Kochi failed as well. But at least they were able to hurt the trainer of their fight club. Even though I'd have preferred if they had succeeded in getting rid of at least one class 5 fighter.”

It took Taiga a felt eternity to understand what he had just said. Juri and Kochi were traitors? But that was something he could worry about later, what was more important: they hurt the trainer! But did that mean they hurt Nikaido or Ueda? Where they already back? He hadn't gotten any information about that from Reo, but it wasn’t like the boy was with him all the time after all and had time to give him every single information he gathered. Hadn’t he just said that he also didn’t know about Fujigaya? Which meant sometimes he didn’t have all the important information.

Takizawa bowed towards the leader and dragged the two boys away from the stage with Yara. Taiga didn’t miss it when the grey haired boy looked at him once more before he turned and left as fast as he could, obviously happy about getting away without a punishment for now. The details could wait for later, but Taiga would at least try and get information from Reo, after all he needed to know if his friends were okay.

“You seem a little bit confused about what I just said,” Domoto addressed Taiga with a calm smile, while Taiga’s anger rose to a dangerous level.

“Why should I? Infiltrating spies into the fight clubs to destroy them from the inside just sounds like one of your games.”

“Mh, so confident at the moment, aren’t you?” Domoto asked on the way Taiga’s eyes threw daggers at him. After all he was still angry about the fact that Domoto had tried to make him hurt his men for failing a mission. He had sworn to himself that he wouldn’t do the same as Reo, even though he had broken that promise already a little bit with hurting Fuma. But this case was different!

It wasn’t until Domoto stepped closer, the whip still in his hand, that Taiga’s confidence got slowly replaced by fear and he took a step backwards when he came in a dangerous range.

“Why do I have the feeling that you are offended about my way of handling things out of a sudden, while you didn’t bother with the fight club attacks until now?”

“It wasn’t like I didn’t bother I just had better things to do than concentrate on your weird plans.”

Out of a sudden Taiga felt as if they were back at their first encounter after Reo had brought him to their hideout. But something was different, because even though Taiga didn’t hold back with his snappy comments he was still somehow more careful, knowing of the punishments which could await him.

“If you start feeling that offended about how I hurt strangers then I wonder how you’d react if it was someone close to you.”

Taiga couldn’t hide the mocking chuckle on that and Domoto’s eyes finally shone with that weird excitement again. Had he missed Taiga’s rebellious way of talking? Not that it would surprise the boy if he actually enjoyed it.

“Strangers? Sure I don’t know those two boys, but I am sure you are aware of that.”

“Oh am I? Guess I am a fortune teller now?”

Taiga gritted his teeth while he tried hard not to start yelling. The way he played that innocent, almost ignorant made his blood boil in his veins.

“How dare you play this ignorant after you let me hurt my friends and talk about the members of my own fight club as if they were just a few more annoying existences on your way to your insanity kingdom?”

He had succeeded in not yelling at him, but that didn’t make the damage less dangerous. Reo had suddenly turned completely pale next to him, but Taiga didn’t seem to realize it at first, until Domoto spoke again with a kind of amused, but also dangerous expression.

“Now I wonder how you knew that I was aware of that?”

What a mistake! Taiga’s eyes widened in shock when Domoto looked towards Reo with a faint smile, so gentle that it was the perfect mask worn by the devil himself. Now Taiga finally realized Reo’s shocked expression which he couldn’t hide anymore as much as he tried to keep a poker face.

“I wonder who is spying on whom here at the moment,” Domoto let out in a neutral voice, but at the same time he clenched the whip in his hand and made a step towards Reo which looked to the ground and bit his lip. There was nothing for him to say, after all Taiga had just failed in realizing that his outburst had brought a lot of problems towards Reo.

It was when Domoto lifted his arm and got ready to lunge out with the whip that Taiga moved without even thinking and luck was with him when Domoto halted the moment as he jumped in front of Reo.

“Now this is getting entertaining,” Domoto said in sheer amusement while lowering the whip again. “So what now? You want to take Reo’s punishment? Do you think you are getting away without one in the first place?”

Taiga wanted to make a step forward, still too much in battle mode to back out now, but he was stopped by Reo’s hand on his sleeve and he turned to the boy which shook his head. The defeat in his eyes made him almost yell at him instead of Domoto, because how could he give up so easily? On the other hand there were so many things Taiga still didn’t know about what happened over the time Reo was a member of Mugen that he couldn’t judge him for being so afraid.

“You know what, I can offer you a deal instead of a direct punishment,” Domoto announced all of a sudden, but as much as he wanted it to look like a sudden change of mind, Taiga guessed that since the moment he had decided to let the Dancing Rascals’ members go he had waited for a fitting moment to announce this “offer”.

“Which would be?” Taiga asked as neutral as possible.

“A tournament.”

“Excuse me?” Taiga asked in confusion, while Domoto’s smile grew wider. With his hands on his back, the whip now in his hands like an unnecessary toy, he walked away from the boys and looked through the theater.

“My first fight club attack in Tokyo failed, our try to throw over the Titanium Triangle is also not going as smoothly as planned and the North Tokyo fight club...your club, already uncovered all of my spies while the other clubs hadn’t even realized about it. Now that we reach the final stage of our plan we might need to change our tactic and which better way is there to beat a fight club as with a tournament?”

“As if they would ever accept a tournament from Mugen,” Taiga let out with a raised eyebrow, because it sounded way too ridiculous.

“Oh trust me they will, because after all I can be really convincing I guess you can certify that as well.”

Sad but true, of course he could, but that didn’t mean that Nikaido and the others would easily get talked into such a dangerous tournament. Especially not after what happened with the Dancing Rascals.

“But there is one condition.”

“Condition for what?”

“For me offering the tournament to them.”

Offering? Yes sure, for him it seemed like an offer. After all he was normally storming through their front doors, burning the club down and killing all unnecessary fighters on the way.

“So what condition would that be?” Taiga asked, now getting slightly irritated by the way he got nervous all of a sudden. But Domoto’s look had changed again and it seemed to burn Taiga, which gave him a shiver.

“You have to participate in that tournament!”

What a stupid condition was that? Taiga couldn’t even think of a reply, not even a mocking one, because it just didn’t make sense at all. Why would he ask that of him? He wasn’t even a good fighter he should know that after Reo had easily brought him here.

“I know that condition might confuse you, but it is the only thing I am asking for. It doesn’t matter how many hidden plans you find in that condition, but if you don’t accept, I will go with another tactic to get to my goal.”

And he would definitely find the cruelest way ever to destroy their club and it gave Taiga a really harsh sting, because he didn’t want to see his friends suffer again. But was a tournament better? And did Domoto really think anyone of them would willingly fight against Taiga? Or that he would fight one of them in the first place? That thought actually made him face Domoto with a confident look again.

“Fine, then let’s have that tournament.”

It had been long since Taiga had seen such a satisfied look on the leader’s face. The shine in his eyes even more dangerous than after he had bowed to him for the first time. There was definitely a weird and twisted plan behind this condition, but Taiga could worry about that later. Like this he got his club more time to come up with a plan without having to fear an attack.

“Good decision,” Domoto said almost as if he praised him for finally being able to follow his logic. “And Reo…”

Both boys tensed again when the leader addressed the younger one with a smile. Taiga was still standing in front of him, not willing to move away, but luckily Domoto didn’t seem to want to attack him. Which couldn’t make them relax, because there were enough opportunities for the leader to punish the boy later.

“You will go to the North Tokyo fight club and tell them about the tournament. I’ll let you know the details about what you have to tell them later. Please escort Taiga back to our quarters for now.”

With that the leader vanished backstage, followed by a few of his members. There were still a lot more in the theater and it was clear that Domoto had made sure that they were taking a look at the boys which made Taiga feel uneasy all of a sudden. After all it was clear that he was being watched, but Domoto seemed to lose his trust in Reo more and more which meant the boy could end up in the biggest mess of them in the end for not following Domoto as he used to do.

“Do you even realize what you just did?” Reo asked him while they walked off stage next to each other, ignoring the members which were following them until they were in the corridor with their rooms.

“What else should I have done? I just saved both our asses, for now…”

“After you brought us in trouble in the first place. Could you at least try and stay a little bit calmer from now on and think before talking?”

Normally he would feel offended through getting scolded like that, especially by Reo, but this time he had definitely messed up big time, so he couldn’t actually deny that this was his entire fault.

“I am not stupid, I know that this tournament will bring a lot of problems and will be anything but fair, but it is better than letting Domoto go and burn the club down and make you kill my friends on the way.”

Those words seem to have hurt a lot, because Reo’s look turned almost tormented on that, but Taiga hadn’t meant it in an offending way.

“I don’t want to see how you are forced to play by his rules,” Taiga added when they reached Domoto’s and his room and he reached out for the boy’s cheek as Reo didn’t look up at him.

The touch made the boy want to look away, but Taiga put both hands to his cheeks to make him look at him. “I won’t tell you to share any more secrets with me, because I don’t want you to get into trouble even more, but there is one last question I want to ask you.”

Reo didn’t nod, but the way he kept looking at him even when Taiga took away his hands told him that he was at least willing to listen.

“Was it Ueda who got hurt?”

Reo didn’t even seem surprised by his question, but he still didn’t answer right away. Sure Taiga had learnt his lesson and knew that he had to keep every word between them a secret from now one no matter how angry he was at Domoto for playing ignorant, but Reo’s fear was still too fresh to make him spill out any other secrets easily.

“I won’t force you if you don’t want to tell me anything,” Taiga let out after a moment of silence and when Reo was still not saying anything he reached for the door handle and turned away from him.

“He is back at your club,” Reo let out when Taiga pushed the door open. It wasn’t a direct answer, more like a safer choice of words, but the meaning was the same, it was Ueda who got hurt and it made Taiga’s heart drop to his feet for a second. But he was hurt not dead, right? He had to stay strong and believe that he was alright and the others would take care of him. He couldn’t crumble now!

“Thank you,” Taiga whispered as he stepped inside the room and turned towards the boy. Reo seemed like he wanted to run away and enter the room at the same time, which made Taiga realize how much his mistake had made the boy feel insecure. After all Domoto hadn’t said that there was no punishment for them now that the tournament was decided. He had just said he had an offer for them, what they got in exchange hadn’t clearly been said.

“You want to stay?” Taiga asked without any hesitation and the way Reo almost flinched on that offer gave him physical pain. How much he would love to stay! It was written all over his face, but he shook his head and made a step back.

“If I am in your room when Domoto comes back we will end up in the next mess, so let’s stay away from each other as much as possible for now.”

That suggestion gave him another sting, but he couldn’t blame his decision. It was maybe the better choice for both of them if they wanted to make it to the tournament without any big injuries.

“Okay,” Taiga said and nodded while Reo turned around.

“By the way,” Reo said and Taiga halted before he closed the door. Reo wasn’t turning around to him, but Taiga still waited patiently for him to keep speaking. “My aim never fails and when I decide to not kill someone than that person will definitely survive even though it doesn’t seem like it at first.”

Leaving Taiga behind with a confused expression he vanished down the corridor towards his own room. Taiga tilted his head and finally closed the door, repeating the words in his head for a while until his eyes grew wide and he faced the door in shock as if he could see Reo through it.

“Shintaro…”

Had the younger one really just told him that Shintaro was alive or was he now trying to interpret things the way which was most fitting his desperate tries to make sure that his friends were safe?

But as he had promised he wouldn’t ask the boy more questions. For now he had gotten the most important information about Ueda and finally an answer to the tormenting pictures in the back of his head of Shintaro getting attacked by Reo. His heart felt a lot lighter all of a sudden, knowing that the boy was safe.


	9. Chapter 9

****

None of them had slept that night and it didn’t make things easier that Nakai had been contacted but didn’t return, because he wanted to make sure once more that the other fight clubs could prove their members’ loyalty, which wasn’t that easy. So for now all the responsibility was back on Nikaido, but at least this time he could focus completely on the problem, without getting distracted by his private troubles.

“Guys, you should really get some sleep. I told you he will be fine,” Miyata scolded Kentaro, Tegoshi and Nikaido which had been in the med room for the whole night. Kentaro was resting with his back on the wall with Nikaido sitting in front of him on a chair next to Ueda’s bed. Tegoshi’s eyes were ready to fall shut, but he remained in a sitting position on his chair. No one could blame him for his worry, after all he had already lost one important person in his life through Avernus and he didn’t want to lose another friend, even though sitting next to him wouldn’t help him that much, but he needed to do at least something and dashing out the room to rip Juri and Kochi apart wouldn’t help any of them.

“I guess we have to finally get over with that talk before we can rest,” Nikaido let out on which Kentaro tensed. He looked at Ueda who was asleep for several hours already and as Miyata had said his life wasn’t in danger, so what they were doing was hiding. Hiding from the confrontation with those they called their closest friends for so long.

“Shall I go alone?” Nikaido asked, but Kentaro shook his head right away.

“I can’t run away from this all the time. I was blind enough to not see Aran’s betrayal coming and with those two...I just didn’t want it to be true,” Kentaro said before he sighed and got up from the bed, followed by Nikaido.

“How come you left them alone with Miyadate and Watanabe? You don’t even know them, right?” Tegoshi asked, but Nikaido just shrugged his shoulders.

“I know it is really stupid to say that I feel like I can trust them, because we were taught several times by now that this feeling is worth nothing, but Ueda also trusted them and even if they betray us as well, then our list will just get longer and we have two more people we need to get rid of.”

“Please don’t say it like that,” Kentaro let out in a low voice on which Nikaido gave him an apologizing look.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.” This time it was Nikaido which sighed and moved his hand through his hair. “Anyways, let’s go.”

Kentaro followed him towards the common room with a numb feeling and when they went inside, finding Miyadate and Watanabe sitting on a table while watching Juri and Kochi which were tied to two chairs, his stomach turned on the spot. How come he still felt the need to jump forward and rescue them? It was their fault to end up that way, but what he wanted to know was why? A question he also wanted to ask Aran so desperately, but it had to wait.

“And did we succeed?” Kochi asked with a mocking smile on which Watanabe jumped of the table and punched him straight in the face. Miyadate was right next to him in an instant to pull him back, after all they should stand back for now, but it wasn’t like anyone could judge him for losing it through Kochi’s sudden arrogant behavior. While Nikaido didn’t even show any reaction to the punch Kentaro felt the need to turn and run away.

“If you really want to know, no you didn’t. He will be fine,” Nikaido let out in a neutral voice. “But this is not what we have to discuss now. We-”

“You want answers?” Kochi interrupted him with a mocking smile. “Sorry, but you don’t scare us. As members of the Dancing Rascals we are as much involved in the Underground as you were with the Fire Foxes. So with whatever methods you want to make us spill out any secret about our troop, we won’t speak.”

While Kochi was extremely convincing with his words, Juri seemed a little bit uncomfortable in his position.

“How about you tell us how you found out that we were traitors? It wasn’t a coincidence that you entered the common room yesterday,” Kochi continued.

Nikaido turned towards Kentaro who seemed to have lost the ability to either walk or speak, which made Juri and Kochi look at him. Kentaro looked up at Juri first, but the boy couldn’t face him for long and directed his look to the ground. When his eyes landed on Kochi the boy looked curious about what he had to say, but it was extremely hard for Kentaro to talk at all. Nikaido walked up to him and put his arm around his shoulders and leant down to him.

“I told you I can handle this alone,” Nikaido whispered in the hope that Kentaro might just leave the room, but he shook his head.

“Oh, are you two back on good terms? How cute, at least you can die together then.”

Kochi’s words were harsh and they hurt more than Kentaro had ever thought something could hurt. Aran’s betrayal had been cruel already, but it was different because he hadn’t seen the boy for years and couldn’t know about how he had changed and why. But Juri and Kochi? They had gone through so much together.

“How could you betray us?” Kentaro let out carefully, not sure if his voice was breaking if he raised it too much.

“Didn’t I already make clear that we are not going to sp-”

“You two helped me to get Nikaido back! We laughed together, we cried together and we faced the biggest mess always side by side,” Kentaro continued without letting Kochi’s hateful glare make him feel insecure. “You made sure that Myuto and Fukka got to help us when we couldn’t handle the situation on our own, you made sure that Taiga and I wouldn’t crumble with the weight on our shoulders! You took that weight off! Fuma, Kento, Tegoshi, Massu and you two!  We wouldn’t have been able to make it without you and-” Kentaro paused for a moment the next breath coming out shaking. “And I will be forever grateful for that!”

Kochi’s look wasn’t that easily changed, but Juri looked up at him with a weird expression on his face. It wasn’t like he seemed sorry, but at least he seemed to feel something in the first place through his words.

“Juri, you even got angry at me for betraying Nikaido. You got so freaking angry with me and to be honest now that things worked out in the end I am grateful you did.”

It seemed to be another blow for Juri and this time his expression turned almost desperate, so he looked away before Kentaro could talk again.

“Okay are we done with the emotional breakdown now?” Kochi interfered, but Kentaro stayed completely calm as he faced him. Through that Watanabe and the others stayed calm as well and waited what would happen next.

“Kochi I know how good you are at analyzing and I also know how amazing your poker face can be, that is also how I know that you feel more about what is going on than you are willing to show. I am not sure if you feel sorry, but it gets to you I know it! After all I’ve seen Avernus and however you ended up with one of their groups, whatever made you stay there, please remember that we are still here for you! We are your family whatever happens!”

That had definitely not been what Kochi expected to hear and for a brief moment his mask seemed to crack a little bit before he took a deep breath.

“Fine, everything is said now I guess? So are you telling us where we messed up or not?” Kochi talked again as if nothing had happened.

Kentaro shot a brief look at Nikaido and the latter stepped forward, pointing at Juri.

“For me it was the way Juri fought at the tournament,” Nikaido explained and Kentaro nodded, because that had been one factor for him as well. “Everyone was taken aback by the cage, but Juri fought in it as if it was something he did every single day and that is not how Juri normally faces new situations. No insecurity with such a huge disadvantage on our side made me a little bit sceptic.”

“But you still didn’t consider us traitors, right?” Kochi concluded and looked to Kentaro.

“Juri’s fight was one reason for me as well, but it was you who made me realize the danger after we discovered that Aran and Hagiya were traitors as well.”

“Me? And here I thought you would be the one screwing up the most,” Kochi teased Juri, but the latter didn’t react to it.

“All the small moments didn’t connect until I gave it a closer look after Aran’s betrayal. When you told me you can teach me how to fight against Yara I knew that there was no way you could analyze him just through looking while he is doing nothing, but I thought you just wanted to help me and encourage me. But then at the tournament you told me that Yara was the trainer and also a fighter without anyone of us knowing about it and then in the med room you told me that you knew he was a dancer! You tried to overplay that you slipped at those moments and it worked, because I didn’t give it another thought at that time.”

“But that’s not all, right?” Kochi added after a moment of silence.

“One night Aran and Hagiya came back from being out in a club and Aran complained that someone spilled a drink on his shirt, later I found out that it had been Kento who had run into him in the Reapers’ club. At that time I woke up a lot at night time, running around because I couldn’t sleep and one night, the night I followed them to the Avernus meeting I heard them talking outside in the corridor. With everything that happened after it I forgot about it, but then I remembered.”

The two boys already knew what he was about to say next, but they didn’t seem to care that much that they had easily been found out like that.

“It was your voices I heard in the corridor as well and because you wanted to go with them it meant that you knew about everything that was going on.”

“And here I hoped we could have revealed ourselves in the end while seeing all your shocked faces,” Kochi tried again to provoke them and it worked for Watanabe, but with Miyadate holding on to his arm he didn’t interfere.

“Guess we have reached a dead end then,” Nikaido spoke next as Kentaro seemed to not know what else to say, after all he had made his point clear. That he was hurt was obvious, but finding the courage to tell them that he wouldn’t just let them walk off to their own destruction without knowing that there was a place for them to come back to had cost him a lot of energy. After all he would have loved to jump at them, shout at them and punch them. But the disappointment was still too big, the pain too fresh to make his body move.

“So if you are not willing to speak we will just keep you here so that you won’t be able to cause more trouble by giving your troop any more information.”

“Oh and you think with the chaos you are in at the moment you will be able to keep an eye on us?” Kochi asked, but Nikaido crossed his arms to his chest with a raised eyebrow.

“You know what? You are right, we will hand you over to Kitayama and Kamenashi. One for each Titanium Triangle member. At least like this we can make sure that there is always someone to watch you.”

Kochi seemed extremely pissed with that decision, because they wouldn’t be easily tricked again after what happened with Aran and Hagiya and in the troops were enough people to keep an eye on them.

“Would you wait here until we prepared everything?” Nikaido addressed Miyadate and the latter nodded, even though he looked also extremely tired.

“Don’t worry we won’t let them get away,” Watanabe assured them and Nikaido thanked them before he pushed Kentaro towards the door. The boy kept staring at his two friends and this time Kochi and Juri were both looking at him, even though their expressions were like night and day, not that any of them showed remorse.

“Are you okay?” Nikaido asked the moment he shut the door behind them, but the answer was immediately and wordless as Kentaro buried his face against Nikaido’s chest and closed his arms tightly around his body. He didn’t care how weak he appeared to anyone else at that moment. He was done caring too much for everyone’s opinion anyway. The louder his sobs got the more Nikaido pulled him against his body, stroking soothingly over his hair.

“I know how much it hurts to get betrayed by your friends,” Nikaido whispered and they remained like that for a while. Kentaro didn’t need to explain himself and Nikaido didn’t need him to say anything anyway, he understood his pain way too well. But maybe they were lucky and Kentaro’s honest words had reached their friends somehow. They couldn’t call them traitors not even in their minds, because somehow they still hadn’t given up on them, so until every remaining part of hope was gone they would remain friends, which have just lost their way and needed a hand to pull them up again and after all they have done for them over the last months they were more than willing to pull them up to the surface again.

***

It had been more or less a coincidence that Sakurai and Yamashita dropped by the Dancing Rascals’ hideout exactly at the timing when Takizawa came back from the meeting with Domoto. Now that they were back they told the two boys to leave them alone for a meeting and the same happened to the person Sakurai had brought alone which was no other than Ren. With nowhere else to go he followed Aran and Hagiya out of the room. For a while they didn’t speak until they reached something like a common room and Aran dropped on a couch in the corner, while Hagiya sat on the couch chair next to it, crossing his arms to his chest and closing his eyes as if he tried to ignore everything that was going on for now.

“Wow, you seem extremely pissed, which I can’t understand, because you just came back from Mugen, right? And as much as I can see you are unharmed which should make you feel extremely lucky,” Ren said as he sat down on the armrest of the couch, looking at Aran who was lying on his back and looked absentminded to the ceiling. When they didn’t react Ren pinched Aran on the leg on which the latter flinched and tried to kick him off the armchair, but Ren just laughed and hit him against his leg. “Are you such sore losers? It’s not like the Storm Warriors showed better results recently. Sure we found Ryosuke in the end, but it took us a lot of effort to find him, because our stupid prisoners wouldn’t talk at all.”

“Did you come to brag about how you managed to show results while we didn’t?” Hagiya asked with a murderous glare towards the boy.

“What? Didn’t I just say that we are not that much better?”

“And then you said you found Ryosuke, congratulations, your troop is awesome,” Hagiya added and clapped his hands before he leant back on the chair with a sigh.

“I heard rumors about the North Tokyo Fight Club that all their fighters share a really special bond and that is why they are so hard to beat. It also seems like they are good in forgiving even the worst betrayal between their friends, which is something I don’t understand to be honest, but who knows what bonds they share,” Ren explained while his look turned almost jealous. “Could it be that you got a little bit too much influenced by them?”

“Shut it, Ren!” Aran hissed at him.

“It’s not like he is wrong. You definitely played a big part in the failure of our plan,” Hagiya suddenly interfered on which Aran shot him a death glare.

“Oh I am so sorry for not killing Kentaro the moment he found me at the hideout. It would have been so much easier to explain to the other members that he mysteriously disappeared, because they are so good in ignoring it when their members are in danger.”

“You know exactly that I mean something completely different, even though I have to admit that killing Kentaro could have spared us a lot of drama. Maybe I should have taken care of that the moment you started screwing things up, but maybe I get a chance to make up for it the next time we meet.”

Aran jumped up so fast that Ren jolted and almost fell of the couch, while Aran stepped in front of Hagiya and took him by the collar. The latter raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t feel threatened as it seemed.

“No one touches Kentaro, is that clear?” Aran growled at him and shot a side glance at Ren as well.

“Wow, I guess you seriously got affected by the time at their club,” Ren said in a serious tone on which Hagiya chuckled.

“Not the members, but just his ex-boyfriend. Seems it was more important to fuck him once more than sticking with the plan and keep a low profile.”

This time Hagiya’s words were too much for Aran to take, because even though Hagiya had every right to be angry at him for messing up the plan through his personal feelings he wouldn’t allow him to keep talking about Kentaro like that.

Hagiya didn’t even try to block the punch as Aran hit him on the cheekbone, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t counter. Hagiya kicked him away with such a force that Aran landed on the ground.

“Guys, really?” Ren asked in annoyance, but didn’t try to interfere.

Aran let out a roar and jumped up again, dashing at Hagiya which dodged the next punch, but couldn’t land another hit either. Soon their fight changed into a quarrel when they ended up on the ground, both trying to get the upper hand.

“Guys! GUYS, COME ON, STOP IT!” Ren finally dared to interfere as it got ridiculous how they wrestled over the floor. He stepped behind Aran who was sitting on Hagiya, dragging him away from the other one. “Aran, you made your point clear! I doubt anyone of the other members will care for what you say, but as your friend I promise that I will stay away from Kentaro even if we face each other in a direct battle,” Ren said soothingly on which Aran calmed down a little bit, but his look fell on Hagiya next who stood up as well and faced him with a pouting expression.

“Hagiya?” Ren asked with a kind of expecting tone on which Hagiya clicked his tongue before he let out a sigh. “Fine! I don’t really approve of you getting that attached to him once more, but I’ll try to not get close to him either.”

Ren cracked a smile, because they didn’t need any fights in their own lines.

“But,” Hagiya added on which their attention was back on him. “If you betray us because of him I will make sure to get rid of you myself.”

Ren got ready to jump between them, because that was a huge direct threat and he was sure Aran would completely freak now, but it came different than he expected.

“Feel free to do so,” Aran replied calmly before he went back to the couch and lay down with closed eyes, waiting for the meeting to be over.

While Hagiya just sat down as well Ren felt completely confused out of a sudden. Aran had been one of Takizawa’s most trusted men until now, but if he heard what he just said it would bring Aran in a really difficult position and still he had clearly said what he felt. Ren hadn’t met Kentaro until now, but he had gotten all the information from Reo before, about Kento and Fuma being former members of his club and out of a sudden a weird smile showed on his lips, because he felt like Sou would perfectly fit in that chaos troop. When he realized that his thoughts had drifted off into a completely unnecessary direction he shook his head and sat down again as well. For now they had to wait and see how things would proceed. Who knew what kind of fight against the Tokyo fight clubs and the Titanium Triangle would await them from here.


	10. Chapter 10

Two days had passed since Juri’s and Kochi’s betrayal and they still hadn’t got anything out of them. Nakai had talked to them as well, but none of them spoke. Watanabe had asked at some point if they shouldn’t try to make them talk instead, because they weren’t emotionally attached to them and wouldn’t mind hurting them to get information, but Nakai and also Nikaido had forbidden them from doing so. In the end Nakai had refrained from handing them to the Titanium Triangle to make sure that they wouldn’t get even more targeted by Avernus.

“Did you see Nakai?” Nikaido asked after he entered the training room, finding Kentaro, Tegoshi, Watanabe and Miyadate in it.

“He is trying to talk to Kochi and Juri again. A few other fighters are with him as well,” Tegoshi explained before he sat down on the side of the ring.

“How come we always end up in this room when we are troubled?” Kentaro asked as he walked over to the punching bags and hit one of them with a light punch.

“What else could be better to let out your frustration?” Miyadate asked with a brief smile.

“Saku and I also did that a lot. Especially when we had an argument we always found back together in the training room. Guess for us fighters this is our safe harbor,” Watanabe added on which Miyadate gave him a teasing smile. “What?”

“Nothing, I am just impressed each time I hear wise words out of your mouth.”

Watanabe pouted on that, but the others smiled and Miyadate ruffled through his hair with a laugh.

Nikaido walked over to Kentaro and gave him a short kiss on the hair. After all he could see how troubled the boy still was through everything that happened over the last days.

“By the way do we have any plan how to proceed from here?” Miyadate asked Nikaido which shrugged his shoulders.

“Ueda won’t be able to get up for at least a few more days and Nakai is still trying to talk to the other fight clubs and the Titanium Triangle, but everyone has their own ideas of what to do, so it might take some time for them to get to a conclusion.”

“But I doubt we have that time,” Watanabe let out with a sigh.

“No, you definitely don’t.”

While Nikaido and Tegoshi seemed surprised, but not at all worried about the boy who suddenly stood in the door, Watanabe, Miyadate and Kentaro tensed right away as they realized that it was Reo who had entered the room. With one of his perfect smiles on his lips when he stepped further inside the training room he approached them as if he had come by for nothing more than small talk.

“How dare you show up here like this?” Watanabe hissed at him right away, but Reo just tilted his head, now with a brighter smile revealing his teeth.

“Oh, am I not welcome here?”

“IGNORANT BASTARD, I AM GOING TO SKIN YOU ALIVE!” Watanabe freaked on the spot and dashed forward, too fast for Miyadate to be able to stop him.

It took all of them by surprise when Reo didn’t even try to defend himself as Watanabe took him by the collar and gave him the first harsh punch, but didn’t release him and pulled him up again so that he could kick him in his stomach which his knee, which made Reo gasp. When there was still no move of defense Watanabe kicked him with such a force that he landed on his back, but his smile had still not vanished and he lifted his hand to wipe away the blood which was running down his lip.

Watanabe got ready to attack once more when Reo started laughing.

“If I were you I’d think about my next move carefully,” he let out in a calm voice and it made Watanabe halt for a second.

“What do you mean?” He hissed at him, ready to beat the shit out of him, because he wasn’t in the mood for his games.

“One punch, two kicks,” Reo said as he got up again.

“What?”

“You want to add more? Because every injury you cause me will also be given to Taiga.”

It took not even the tenth of a second for Watanabe to make a step back on his words, because he was already at fault that Reo would hurt Taiga now that he had hurt Reo, he didn’t want to be at fault for more. Not that he could be sure that they wouldn’t hurt him anyways.

“Please don’t hurt him!” Kentaro interfered and made a step closer towards them while Watanabe retreated towards Tegoshi and Miyadate.

“Oh you are begging already? That was fast,” Reo teased, but then he took a closer look at him. “I normally know a lot of names, but not necessarily faces, but the way you worry for him I’d say you are Kentaro, right?”

“You know me?”

“He knows all of us, he is Domoto’s right hand!” Miyadate let out in disgust, while Tegoshi and Nikaido looked at the boy in confusion, because they hadn’t actually thought of a boy like him as such a dangerous person.

“Exactly and because you also know me you should know that I didn’t come here to pick a fight.”

“Oh how nice of you,” Watanabe let out sarcastic before he turned to Miyadate. “Can we take him hostage and trade him with Taiga?”

The question made Kentaro’s eyes widen, because wouldn’t that be possible if they succeeded to win against him? With Nikaido on their side as well the chances were good, but what if he got away? Each attack would mean another injury for Taiga and Kentaro didn’t want to take that risk.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but Mugen is not exchanging hostages, so don’t even waste your energy on that thought,” Reo warned them before he dared to take a few more steps forward, approaching Kentaro on which Nikaido stepped closer.

“Mh, Nikaido, right? We hoped through our spies we could have gotten rid of you and Ueda already, but seems like luck wasn’t on our side. We just got one of you until now.”

This time it was Watanabe’s turn to hold someone back, as Tegoshi got ready to dash forward, his look throwing daggers at Reo. “Oh sorry, was that a weak spot?”

“I swear I’ll hurt you so bad that you won’t even be able to hurt Taiga anymore,” Tegoshi yelled at him, but on that Nikaido shot him a warning glare and the latter took a deep breath and let himself get dragged back by the other two boys.

“Why did you come here?” Nikaido asked this time, trying to keep the situation as calm as possible.

“To bring you an invitation.”

“What invitation?”

“For a tournament against Avernus.”

While Nikaido just raised an eyebrow, Kentaro’s look turned completely confused and Watanabe just let out a mocking chuckle while shaking his head.

“What makes your crazy leader believe that we would accept a tournament against them?” Miyadate asked.

“Because it is better than burning down this club maybe?” Reo asked back as if Miyadate was too stupid to find the reason behind the invitation. This time he had even succeeded in making Miyadate angry, but the latter was still calm enough to not make any stupid moves.

“Is there any guarantee that you will leave us alone if we win the tournament?” Kentaro asked and who wouldn’t want to know about that very important detail?

“If you want to know more I would like to ask you to come to the Mugen hideout. Domoto wants to explain the details in an official meeting.

“Yes, perfect. Shall we all go together so you can just murder us in one go?” Watanabe shot at him.

“It’s your choice who is going and you are free to try your luck and attack us instead of taking the invitation, but I doubt you are organized enough at the moment to stand even the slightest chance against Avernus,” Reo explained as he walked through the room with his hands on the back. Soon he realized though that Kentaro was staring at him nonstop, a confused expression on his face.

“Did I say something that confused you?” Reo addressed him directly this time on which Kentaro took a few steps forward until he was standing right in front of him.

“Why is Taiga able to break that mask of yours? Because it doesn’t seem to fall easily.”

Kentaro’s words confused everyone except Reo, because he had heard that Kentaro had sneaked to the Avernus meeting, so he had seen what had happened, but he was impressed that he had noticed the way Reo acted differently if he was next to Taiga.

“Don’t we all act differently depending on the people around us?” Reo answered neutral, but Kentaro didn’t seem to be satisfied by his explanation.

“How can you come here and tell us that you will hurt him later when you were the one who made sure that he wouldn’t kill Fuma?”

Reo’s expression still didn’t change. He reached out to touch Kentaro’s face and to his surprise the boy didn’t even flinch, but Nikaido’s look darkened immediately.

“Look, you would never behave that calm if it wasn’t for Taiga’s sake, right? But what if you had to protect yourself as well? If I threatened to hurt you now, would you still stand back for the sake of your friend?”

His words slightly confused him, but he had already had the feeling that Reo was a complicated character and not easily understood.

“If it is for the sake of my friends I will sacrifice even my life to rescue them.”

Reo’s smile grew wider again on those words and he pulled his hand back before he nodded. “Then you should consider taking our invitation. After all this tournament is not just for your sake, but for the whole Underground.”

It almost sounded like Reo wanted to help them finding the right decision and Kentaro wouldn’t even find it that weird anymore after seeing him helping Taiga before. There was no doubt that this boy carried a lot of responsibilities, but there was also a lot of weight on his shoulders, Kentaro could see it in his eyes as much as he tried to keep a poker face. There were a lot of burdens and the need of running away was clearly visible behind that calm attitude.

“When shall we come to see your leader?”

“Kentaro, are you crazy?” Tegoshi asked in disbelieve, but Nikaido didn’t seem to disagree with the boy.

“Come to the hideout tomorrow evening if you want to take the invitation. You decide yourself who is coming and I promise you that the people you send won’t get hurt.”

“Tell Domoto that we will take the invitation,” Kentaro announced, knowing that Nikaido wasn’t going to stop him.

“He will be pleased to hear that,” Reo let out with a light bow towards them before he walked over to the door.

“Are you really letting him go like that?” Watanabe asked impatiently, but none of them made a move to interfere.

“Reo, wait!” Kentaro stopped him, even though it wasn’t because of what Watanabe had said, because his intention wasn’t to keep him there. He walked up to him, the taller one tilting his head in amusement when they boy stopped in front of him.

“I really like how you address me so easily,” Reo let out, because it wasn’t like anyone else in the room had been able to have a normal conversation with him, except for Kentaro. “So what is it?”

Kentaro remained silent for a moment before he looked up at the other one with an almost begging look. “Can you spare Taiga the three attacks from Watanabe?”

That question took them all by surprise, because the others couldn’t understand why Kentaro would ask him something like that, but Reo did and for a brief moment his expression turned to troubled. “Feel free to punch me instead. You can punch and kick me as much as you want, but I know that Taiga is going through enough pain at the moment already. He doesn’t need physical pain as well now.”

It took Reo a moment to realize that all eyes were on him, waiting for his reply. With a cough he made a step back, ready to leave the room, but then he looked at Kentaro once more.

“I will consider it,” he replied and left without waiting for the other one to say anything else. With that he vanished and no one would try to stop him.

“Okay, what the hell just happened? What was this all about?” Tegoshi asked while pulling on his own hair. He was still so angry and so confused about the boy’s sudden appearance and all the information they got.

“We should calm down and have a talk with Nakai and Ueda about this,” Miyadate concluded.

“Could you go and get Nakai then for now? We will join you in a moment in the med room, so that Ueda can be part of the talk without having to move,” Nikaido asked of them and Miyadate nodded, getting the hint right away as he pushed Tegoshi and Watanabe out of the room.

“Kentaro, what was that about?” Nikaido asked the other one directly and Kentaro let out a shaking breath before he faced the older one. It hadn’t been just Reo wearing a mask, but Kentaro as well, because now the fear he had hidden over the whole conversation was clearly visible. Nikaido pulled him closer right away and Kentaro rested his forehead against the latter’s chest for a moment until he got a grip again.

“I know this might be really confusing for all of you, but Reo...he is, different. You know, I saw him kill Ryosuke and Keito, that is something that makes him one of the most dangerous members in Avernus, especially because he is Domoto’s right hand, but I also saw how he helped Taiga...and not just with Fuma, but also just by being with him...does that even make sense to you?” Kentaro asked apologizing, because he didn’t even make sense to himself.

“Don’t worry, I don’t know what you saw in him that day, but I could tell today that there is something hidden under that mask and if we are lucky it is stronger than the mask of fear he is wearing.”

Kentaro thought so as well, because everything Reo had said earlier, about protecting a friend and protecting oneself showed the fight which was rampaging inside of him. It was clear that with Taiga he had found someone he wanted to protect, but the danger lying in that whish could cost him his life. The question was what he treasured more?

***

With a sigh Taiga turned on his back, after he had turned around several times already, but whatever he tried he couldn’t sleep anymore. Once more Domoto had left early in the morning and Taiga had just pretended to be still asleep, as always. He knew that it was the day Reo was going to his fight club, but what could he do about it? He had agreed to the tournament and now he had to deal with every single consequence of it. But at the moment everyone was leaving him alone. Which was good in matters of Domoto, but it was different with Reo. Since Taiga had blurt out that Reo was giving him information which he wasn’t allowed to share with him the boy hadn’t shown up in front of him at all. The last time Reo didn’t show up for a long time he was worried for him not being able to come, which had indeed been the case, but this time he felt like Reo went on distance on his own and he couldn’t blame him. Taiga was definitely not making it easy for the boy to keep up his walls and while he liked it to have someone around to talk to, it was a dangerous game for Reo.

With a groan he turned on his stomach and hid his face in the pillow, but then the door opened and he lifted his head knowing already that it couldn’t be Reo, because he would be in a meeting with Domoto.

The person entering though brought a smile on his face as well and he sat up immediately when the other one closed the door behind him.

“Saku! Are you okay? I didn’t see you for a while! Do you have any news form the fight clubs or the other troops?” Taiga bombarded him with questions before the boy could even sit down on the bed.

“Calm down, I couldn’t come for a few days, but earlier Reo allowed me to come, right before he left.”

“So he really went to talk to them,” Taiga let out almost disappointed, but what did he expect? That Domoto wouldn’t play this game? Not punishing Reo and Taiga meant his new game had a lot of cruel happenings awaiting them otherwise he wouldn’t have spared them the direct torture.

“I heard from a few other members what happened. I don’t want to sound harsh, but you should really be more careful,” Saku scolded him lightly and Taiga couldn’t deny that he had messed up big time, because it wasn’t just him he had brought into trouble with his snappy attitude this time.

“I know and I have to talk to Reo again about it, but...at the moment he is not really talking to me.” It almost sounded like he was pouting and it actually made Saku chuckle.

“I would never have imagined that Reo could ever warm up to someone like this. Since I came here he was nothing more than a weapon to Domoto and...his personal toy,” he added in a low voice.

“There we have something in common, except for the weapon part, because fighting is not one of my strong points, at least not in the ring.”

“And still he wants you to fight in the upcoming tournament, right?”

“You heard about that as well?”

“The members are talking about it nonstop, because it seems like Domoto will get whole Avernus together for it. But the details will be announced if your members are coming to officially take the challenge.”

“Wait, what? They are coming? HERE?” Taiga’s voice almost reached such a high pitch that Saku flinched back and covered his ears.

“Come on, your voice could be a weapon instead of your physical power, but please don’t use it against me!” Saku complained while Taiga’s thoughts drifted off. They were coming before the tournament already? But who and when? He looked up at Saku, but the boy lifted his hand immediately.

“Don’t even ask. I don’t know any details either, but think about it! Domoto won’t let the chance pass to turn this into some game as well, so be prepared for whatever will happen from now on!”

Taiga nodded before he closed his eyes for a moment and tried to calm down. Of course Domoto would try and make this tournament as entertaining as possible, but the question was still if the others would accept the challenge!?

For now he could just wait and see how Reo’s visit would affect his friends.


	11. Chapter 11

“I still think of this as a really bad idea,” Nikaido complained again.

“You were the one who didn’t stop Kentaro from taking the challenge if I understood that correctly.”

“As if I meant that idiot! You shouldn’t be here with me! You should be in the med room. Do you think I am blind? I can see how hard it was for you to even come the whole way here with me,” Nikaido scolded Ueda who stood next to him in front of the Mugen hideout.

“You would have preferred letting Kentaro go? Or Tegoshi who freaks pretty easily at the moment as well?” Ueda shot back at the younger one.

“Oh and you think you are any better? Can you swear that you won’t do anything stupid whatever happens inside there?”

“What could I possibly do in my state anyway?”

“You could get killed, because I doubt you can sit still if they hurt Taiga when you are present, but you can’t fight so please remember that it will help no one if any of us dies here today.”

They had actually had the same conversation earlier with Nakai and the others already. But Ueda had been stubborn enough to convince everyone that he was allowed to go. Showing up in front of Domoto even though his spies had almost succeeded in killing him would show him that they weren’t afraid. It was actually a smart move and Nakai couldn’t deny that. At first Nakai had said he’d go himself, but everyone had been against it right away. After all he was the connection between the other fight clubs and the Titanium Triangle at the moment. They needed the higher ups to be in charge and leave the dirty work on the front lines to them.

“I’m surprised to see you two here to be honest,” Reo greeted them as he walked outside the theater. “I am not sure if you trust us that much or if you are not aware of the fact that we could get rid of two of our strongest opponents in one go like that.”

“Call it stupid if you want, but trust me that even if you betray your word and won’t let us go again there are enough other people out there ready to burn down your troop as you burned down their clubs,” Ueda warned the boy.

Reo just hummed in amusement before he turned around and told them to follow him.

“The meeting will be on the main stage, but let me tell you right away that there are enough members in the theater to stop you if you plan anything stupid.”

“Shouldn’t we be the ones worried that you play dirty tricks instead?” Nikaido shot back.

“Mh, also true,” Reo replied without any hesitation. “By the way, whatever happens at the meeting if you dare to get too close to Domoto it might be your last move so think twice before you act.”

The warning was clear, but they wondered why Reo gave them an extra warning like that. It wasn’t like Reo had to care for their lives in the first place.

It was the moment they moved through the corridors between the seats towards the stage that they realized what the warning was for and Ueda tensed right away, almost stopping as he spotted Taiga next to Domoto on the stage. The leader was sitting on a chair on an extra platform at the end of the stage which could be reached through some stairs, while Taiga stood right next to him.

When Taiga spotted Ueda as well it seemed like the boy held his breath and time seemed to stop for both of them. It had been months  since they had last seen each other and while Taiga seemed relieved to see that Ueda was able to make his way here even with his wound, Ueda needed to gather all his calmness to not freak on the sight of the metal collar around Taiga’s neck. He had heard of it, but seeing it for real gave him the most unpleasant sting he had ever felt in his life.

It wasn’t just the collar itself, there were bruises visible under it on his skin, another faint bruise he could see on his face when they had finally reached the stage and he was sure that there were definitely others as well. He also looked a lot thinner, which worried him a lot.

When Nikaido suddenly reached out for his sleeve he landed back in reality, realizing that he wanted to approach Taiga more, but for that he would need to go up the stairs and that was definitely the distance limit Reo had been talking about before. As expected there were also a lot of other Mugen members scattered around close to the stage, so there was no way they would try anything that could bring them or Taiga into trouble.

“Welcome,” Domoto greeted them with a way too friendly and warm smile. “I am pleased to see that the trainer of the North Tokyo Fight Club and their number one fighter decided to come to talk to me. It means a lot to me that you take this challenge serious.”

Normally at least one of them would have let out a mocking reply now, but the presence of Taiga made them both hold back as much as possible.

“So do we get to know more about that tournament now? Seems like you didn’t trust your little toy with the details,” Ueda let out as calm as he could, but his choice of words seemed to amuse Domoto right away.

“Oh what a harsh choice of words. He is really precious to me. I just wanted to have a direct talk with you before the official tournament. Isn’t that what the fight clubs normally do before a tournament?”

“But they don’t burn down other clubs,” Nikaido interfered not able this time to stay silent.

“And they definitely don’t kidnap people and force them to hurt other fight club members,” Ueda added his eyes wandering towards Taiga for a moment.

“Forcing? Mh, I wouldn’t say it like that. I am showing some lost souls the right way.”

“Through kidnapping them at night from a group he is traveling with?”

So the conversation had moved towards Taiga after not even a few minutes, but wasn’t that what Domoto should have expected when he dared to flaunt Taiga like this as if he was a piece of art he created himself?

“You want proof? Fine with me,” Domoto said all of a sudden and turned towards Taiga with a smile before he made a movement with his hand to the front. “Go with them if you want.”

Taiga looked at him in a complete loss, because he couldn’t have heard right, could he? When he didn’t move, Domoto stood up and walked behind Taiga, pushing him to the front.

“You want to go back to them? Please feel free to do so, I won’t stop you,” Domoto said clearer this time and Taiga looked at Ueda in confusion, but the latter had already made a step to the front, his eyes begging Taiga to come down the stairs and Taiga made his first steps towards him with his thoughts racing. What was going on? Wasn’t this too easy? But he couldn’t deny that the way Ueda seemed so desperate to be able to hold him in his arms again and to get him away from all the pain and cruel games made him want to dash down the stairs and jump in his arms.

But then he looked towards Reo who was standing at the side of the stage and he halted. Of course it was too easy and the latter’s look told him that he was about to make the biggest mistake of his life.

Without any hesitation Taiga made a step back as he realized how easily he got tricked by Domoto again. Sure he wouldn’t stop him, but what would come after that? Even though Taiga was still not following Domoto’s rules the leader saw him as a member of Mugen, so if he was going back to them now it was the same as a betrayal. That would actually give him the reason to attack Ueda and Nikaido as well, because they would try to get Taiga out, but there was no way Taiga would put them in danger as much as he was screaming inside and wanted to beg them to finally rescue him.

Ueda looked at him in shock after he made another step backwards. When he wanted to walk up the stairs to get him, Taiga shook his head with wide eyes and luckily Ueda seemed to at least get that it wasn’t the time to try any unplanned rescue, after all that wasn’t what they had come for. When Ueda took another deep breath and gave Taiga another intense look the boy finally dared to turn away and walked back to Domoto. He had seen the desperation in Ueda’s eyes, the feeling of getting defeated in Domoto’s stupid game and who could understand that feeling better than Taiga? But luckily Ueda was calm enough to consider their chances and he also stepped back towards Nikaido, but his look had darkened a lot, his eyes throwing daggers at Domoto who was looking at Taiga.

“Is that your answer?” Domoto asked in sheer amusement when Taiga went back next to the chair.

“Seems like you have to leave without him, what a shame,” Domoto addressed Ueda with a satisfied and almost mocking tone, but Ueda succeeded in staying calm even through the direct provocation. Inside of him everything was screaming at him to grab Taiga and run, because he couldn’t explain what was going on.

Domoto just sat down again and waved Reo over to him and the boy climbed the stairs and stopped next to Taiga.

“By the way Reo, I forgot about something and I guess it is a good timing to get over with it now. We don’t want to let Taig wait for too long, right? So how many punches and kicks?”

That question made Ueda and Nikaido tense, after all Nikaido knew what they were talking about and Ueda had heard the story as well.

When Reo wanted to say something Domoto lifted his hand and pointed at Taiga. “Don’t tell me, show me!”

The only one who didn’t seem to have heard about what was going on was Taiga, because he looked from one to the other in confusion, but there was no time for explanations, because Reo turned towards him right away and gave him a harsh punch right under the ribs, which took Taiga by such a surprise that he couldn’t breathe for a moment and fell to his knees even though he clawed his hands into the seam of Reo’s shirt.

Reo just kept looking down at him, while Ueda had lost his patience and had gotten ready to dash forward, but Nikaido stopped him in time, even though he needed a lot of force this time to hold him back. Just a moment ago Taiga had chosen Domoto over Ueda and here he was giving him a ridiculous punishment he didn’t even know the meaning of?

“And?” Domoto addressed Reo after nothing else happened, but the boy turned towards him and bowed.

“That’s all. It was one punch.”

“Just one? They went that easy on you?” Domoto asked with a hint of disbelieve in his voice as he raised an eyebrow at him, completely ignoring Taiga sitting to his feet, still coughing.

“I told them about the punishment Taiga would get through their attacks after the first punch.”

“Oh, Reo. You ruined all the fun like that,” Domoto pouted, but seemed to believe him which surprised Nikaido. After all the boy had just lied him straight in the face and that because Kentaro had begged him to do so or would he have done it even without the boy asking him to?

It made Nikaido suddenly get up his hopes that they could find Mugen members which weren’t as crazy as Domoto. After all it had been the same with the Fire Foxes before, not all of them were necessarily bad people, a lot had just lost their way.

The attention was dragged away from Taiga the moment Nikaido let out a loud curse and the reason for that was Ueda who had suddenly dropped to his knees. Through his tries to interfere his wound had opened again and it had been hard enough for him to not show from the beginning that he was in pain, after all the wound was deep and still fresh, even Miyata had tried about a dozen times to stop him from going.

“Damn it Ueda, get up!” Nikaido hissed at him and tried to pull him up again, but the latter’s breathing had turned heavy all of a sudden and it was clear that he needed to get back to the club as fast as possible.

Taiga had also jumped immediately, but right after his first step, Reo’s hand landed on his chest, pushing him backwards with a warning glare. That couldn’t stop him to keep looking at Ueda in worry though.

“I guess I should do you the favor and end this meeting as fast as possible. After all we need you to be in a good condition for the tournament,” Domoto announced while watching them with a played understanding and worried look as Nikaido finally succeeded in getting Ueda back up, but had to stabilize him so that he wouldn’t lose balance.

“I’m fine,” Ueda let out and wanted to make a step to the side, but Nikaido grabbed his arm and put it around his shoulder and before Ueda could complain the other one shot him a death glare, leaving no room for any discussion. Even though Ueda’s shirt was black the wet spot on his stomach was already clearly visible and it made Taiga go paler than he already was through the whole meeting.

“I swear if you don’t stop making this even worse, I am going to knock you unconscious,” Nikaido hissed at him in a low voice so that the others couldn’t hear it and that threat was something Ueda didn’t want to happen, because as short as this meeting was it was still his only chance to see Taiga for now. Trying to get a grip again he nodded at Nikaido and looked up at Taiga who almost forgot about Reo blocking his way for a moment as he tried to move forward again.

“Then to make this meeting official, here is your invitation to the tournament,” Domoto announced and pulled out an envelope. Reo stepped away from Taiga and wanted to take it from Domoto, but the latter shook his head. “Let Taiga give it to them.”

That announcement made them all tense anew, but of course Domoto would try to make this meeting as memorable for both sides as possible, in a bad way for them and in a satisfying way for him.

He kept holding the letter towards Taiga’s direction, but the boy hesitated. Was it another trap? But this time Reo stepped out of his way, so he was allowed to go...as long as he came back after handing them the letter and that thought made his stomach turn on the spot. Was he really strong enough to do what he was told? With every bit of his body and mind screaming at him to not leave Ueda’s side again when he was standing next to him?

“Are we back at refusing my orders?” Domoto’s smile had lost a bit of its brightness on those words and the shine in his eyes turned dangerous. It wasn’t the time and place for Taiga to test the leader’s limits. If he got punished in front of Nikaido and Ueda they would definitely interfere and with Ueda being in such a bad condition it was way too dangerous.

While biting his cheek from the inside Taiga finally stepped to the front and took the letter out of his hand, but when he wanted to turn to the stair case the leader let out a small cough on which Taiga turned back to him. “Didn’t you forget something?”

It wasn’t the anger about what Domoto meant which shocked Taiga, but the fact that he knew right away what he meant. But wasn’t it a good sign? He got better in reading the leader and his intentions and he would definitely need that skill later.

With a brief look to the ground and a moment of hesitation Taiga turned back to him completely and bowed once before he turned away as fast as possible to not get angry at the satisfied smile Domoto was definitely forming behind his back. But facing Ueda and Nikaido wasn’t that much easier, because they seemed extremely shocked about Taiga’s obedience.

Taiga’s heart felt like it would jump out his chest when he stood in front of them and Ueda tried to find his focus, but it was obviously hard for him to even stay conscious in the first place.

“Take this and leave as fast as you can. Please take care of him,” Taiga addressed Nikaido first, because he wasn’t forbidden to talk, right? And there was no warning heard from Domoto after his words, so he turned his attention towards Ueda, but what he saw almost broke him more than Domoto’s games had until now.

There was so much pain visible in the latter’s eyes. Not the physical one, but the one about him not having been able to protect Taiga. The disappointment in his own weakness and mistakes. The way he blamed everything on himself made Taiga tear up without him realizing it before his under lip started trembling and he bit his lips while trying hard to get a grip, but out of a sudden the whole situation was too much for him. He was so close to him and still too many obstacles were put in their way to finally find back together.

“Please, don’t blame this on yourself. This is not your fault,” Taiga let out in a shaking voice, because he didn’t know what else to say. There were hundreds of things he could have said, but his thoughts were a huge mess and he wasn’t even sure how he had succeeded in saying something in the first place. With shaking hands he held the letter out towards them and Nikaido wanted to grab it, but Ueda was faster and grabbed Taiga’s hand together with the letter.

It made Taiga tense, but there was still no reaction and Nikaido’s eyes were directed towards Domoto to make sure when they’d reached the limit. But luckily for now they seemed to be allowed to share at least that one touch and it was enough for Taiga to make his tears finally flow over.

“I’m coming back to get you out of here, you hear me?” Ueda whispered. The confidence in his voice making Taiga feel as if he hadn’t gone through hell at all over the past months, because it was a promise that filled him with such a warm feeling that there was no way he would easily give up now.

Ueda squeezed his hand so tightly that it almost hurt the boy, but all he did was nodding before he tried to form a smile while stopping his body from shaking.

“I’ll be waiting, no matter how long it takes.”

“Stay strong!”

“I am a class five fighter in my mind, remember?” Taiga let out almost in a teasing way and it made Ueda’s look brighten up, even though it was still far away from a smile. “Please leave now.”

It was hard for Taiga to actually tell them the opposite from what he wanted to say, but of course the others knew that.

“We will come back,” Nikaido promised and Taiga nodded at him with a thankful expression, because sure they had to come back for the tournament anyway, but that wasn’t what Nikaido meant and Taiga understood. They were coming back for him, to get him out, no matter what, but for that they needed a plan and even if it had to wait until the tournament Taiga would wait.

Taiga wanted to pull back, but once more Ueda tightened his grip on his hand before he faced the boy with such an intense stare that Taiga feared he would drag him with them after all, but it came different. He dared to pull Taiga closer and hugged him. Knowing that he could have overstepped the limit with his actions he hurried to release the boy again, but the hug had been long enough for Taiga to respond and he had closed his arms with a tight grip around the other one’s body as well.

“I love you,” Ueda whispered next to his ear before he pulled back and needed to reach out for Nikaido right away to not lose balance.

“Taiga,” Domoto’s voice was heard all of a sudden before Taiga could answer anything. The boy turned to face the leader and as expected his look had darkened now. But Taiga couldn’t care less. There was no way he would let Ueda know that he could get into trouble later, because of what he had done, because he couldn’t be more thankful to Ueda for risking so much to at least give him that small amount of comfort.

The leader didn’t have to say more and Taiga retreated, giving Ueda a last look with which he tried to express how grateful he was, but his tears had barely stopped and he didn’t know how much his feelings were visible behind all the sorrow.

“You are free to leave. You will find all the details about the tournament in the envelope,” Domoto explained as he got up the moment Taiga had walked up the stair case again. He tried to get over to Reo, but Domoto stopped right next to him, one look showing him that he wasn’t allowed to move away from him.

Nikaido finally dared to make a step back and luckily Ueda followed without any complains, but he still tried to keep his eyes on Taiga for as long as possible.

Domoto made a movement with his hands and looked at Reo which bowed and walked down towards the others to guide them out of the building, while Taiga kept standing next to Domoto a kind of empty feeling taking over him the moment he looked at their backs.

***

It didn’t take more than a few minutes after they had left the hideout until Ueda collapsed once more and this time Nikaido wasn’t sure anymore if they could make it back to the club like that.

“Let’s take a break,” Nikaido suggested, but Ueda shook his head and tried to get up again. Even with the support of Nikaido it was more than hard for him to even get on his feet and Nikaido couldn’t but wonder why he wanted to keep going so desperately. After all they didn’t get chased.

“We don’t have to hurry back like that. The others don’t know how long the meeting was anyway, they will survive a bit longer without us coming back.”

“Bring me to Kamenashi’s hideout instead,” Ueda said all of a sudden, which surprised the latter even more. So he wasn’t actually hurrying back to the club, he was running away from the hideout.

“You know that the others will skin me alive the moment I go back without you! They won’t even let me explain before they think something bad happened.”

“I don’t care! Drop me of there and go!” Ueda shot at him before he faced the ground again, trying hard to suppress a painful groan, because by now every word seemed to be too much. Breathing alone took already a lot of effort, but what confused Nikaido a little bit were the sounds in his breaths, because he could tell that it wasn’t the usual shaking in it through the pain.

“Ueda, what is wrong?” Nikaido asked carefully, because he hadn’t seen Ueda like this until now and he couldn’t deny that it almost scared him. The way he clung to him desperately, not just to support himself, but also as if he needed him next to him to be able to keep sane.

“Nothing, let’s go!” Ueda tried to convince him, but as much as he tried to make them move faster his body wouldn’t let him. Just a few steps later he almost stumbled again and Nikaido shoved him into a smaller alley next to the street they were on.

“Even if I bring you to Kamenashi’s hideout we don’t have to hurry that much. Would you just take a break for a moment?”

“I don’t need a break, for god’s sake!” Ueda yelled at him this time and Nikaido was more than worried about the way Ueda’s breathes have gone erratic in a way that he feared the latter could collapse every second now.

“Ueda…”

“Let’s go,” Ueda interfered once more, trying to make Nikaido back off to the main street, but the latter tried to push him against the wall so that he had to rest, but the resistance he had to face was stronger than he had thought. It surprised him that Ueda could still push him back, but that didn’t mean that he would let him be reckless without explaining what was on his mind.

“We are not getting chased, calm down, would you? From whom are you running away?”

“I AM NOT RUNNING AWAY!”

This time Ueda pushed Nikaido with such a force that the younger one stumbled backwards, but the result was Ueda landing on his knees. First Nikaido wanted to help him up again, but then he froze as he realized that Ueda’s breathing and groans had mixed with a new sound. It was the first time for Nikaido to see him so broken and he couldn’t deny that he felt scared by the picture in front of him.

When Ueda let out a furious scream and punched the ground a few tears dropped to the ground as well, which showed that Nikaido hadn’t imagined the sobs coming from him before.

“I couldn’t protect him back then and now I had to leave him behind again! He was right in front of me, DO YOU KNOW HOW THAT FEELS?” Ueda yelled at the other one once more while trying to stop coughing between his outbursts, but his wound was causing him more and more pain and made it harder for him to speak at all.

Another scream followed and this time he directed his punch towards the wall before he crumbled to the ground with his back against it. He still tried to remain in a sitting position, but his body was about to force him down completely. With a loud curse he tried to get up again, but it wasn’t possible.

To make things worse it started raining the next moment and it turned into a quite heavy rain in just a few minutes. Nikaido hurried to put the letter inside his jacket, but there was no way he could make Ueda move somewhere else to search for shelter.

Nikaido did nothing. Everything he could do was stare at his friend, because no he didn’t know how he felt, but now he could imagine how Kentaro had felt when Nikaido had left him behind or how Fuma must have felt when they left Kento with Ryosuke. But there was nothing he could do about it. Not now at least. Things have started to move, but for Ueda and Taiga it was a cruel game of waiting, without knowing the outcome.

Between the heavy raindrops Nikaido couldn’t tell anymore if Ueda was still crying or not, but his breathing pace had finally calmed down a little bit and he was now resting with his head back on the wall, his eyes closed and his mouth open to be able to take deeper breathes.

Carefully Nikaido crouched down in front of him, but the latter didn’t open his eyes and didn’t seem to care at all that he was soaked to the core already.

“We don’t know if this tournament will be any good,” Nikaido started in a low voice. “Whatever is written in this letter doesn’t necessarily mean that Domoto will keep his word. It might be one big trap, but I want to give it a try. To rescue our club, maybe even the whole Underground and of course to save Taiga.”

When Ueda’s face turned into a tormented mask through the mention of Taiga’s name Nikaido bit his lip and paused for a moment, but Ueda still remained silent.

“I don’t know how painful this whole situation is for you, I can just guess. But you were so strong until now you were fighting for Taiga this whole time, looking after those boys, because you knew Taiga wants you to. Even when we talked at Kamenashi’s hideout you still tried so hard to be the mature and calm one. But you are just human as well, as am I and I know how much it takes to be able to crumble like this and be seen at such a weak moment, but we are all here to support you, remember that! We are your family and no one of us will leave Taiga behind! No one of us is running away!”

Through those words Ueda took another shaking breath before he dared to open his eyes again. The sorrow was still there and it wouldn’t go away that easily, but now Nikaido finally understood why he had tried so desperately to get away and especially why he didn’t want to go to the club. He had seen his own breakdown coming and had hoped to be able to postpone it until Nikaido was on his way to the club, but even if Ueda didn’t want someone to see him like this, for Nikaido it was something really important. A reminder to himself that they had all went through similar hardship and that they had to remember to keep each other’s’ back at any time and remind them to never lose hope.

“Let’s go to Kamenashi’s hideout then. You really need to get that wound sewed up again,” Nikaido said scolding as he took Ueda’s arm and threw it around his shoulder to drag him back up and this time the latter didn’t complain.

“You can carry me if you want to be faster,” Ueda replied and Nikaido had to smile on the way he had found his teasing tone back that fast.

“No way, even if you black out I will drag you there on the floor instead of carrying you.”

“Oh what a nice friend you are,” Ueda said with a chuckle and Nikaido squeezed his hand with a brief smile. Yes, exactly this was the strength their fight club was so famous for. The way of living by the rules of the Underground. They were truly a family!


	12. Chapter 12

This time Taiga knew that as much as he was about to get a mental breakdown through what had just happened he couldn’t allow himself to crumble as at the time he had shot Fuma. With a lot of effort he succeeded in keeping a neutral expression next to Domoto even after Ueda and Nikaido had left and he wouldn’t let himself get provoked in any way. After all he had seen Ueda, right? And even though he wasn’t in the best physical condition and was blaming himself for not being able to rescue Taiga even though he was right in front of him, just seeing him had given him another boost of confidence, which resulted in Domoto leaving him alone for the night. There seemed to be no need for the older one to confirm that he had made Taiga’s emotions crush like huge waves at the sharpest cliffs. Sorrow and relief dancing around each other with sharp edges which Taiga needed to avoid as best as possible if he didn’t want to get swallowed by any bad thoughts again.

What he couldn’t stop though was the need for another cold shower after he was back in his room, luckily alone for the rest of the night. With his still wet hair hanging in long strands in his eyes he made it back to the bed tossing the towel to the ground next to it before he curled up on the covers. It wasn’t that warm in the room and the t-shirt he was wearing would make him feel chilly after a while, especially after the cold shower, but he couldn’t care less. Just for a while he wanted to close his eyes and try to catch the picture of Ueda in his mind. Recalling his words and feeling his touch on his hand. Never had he thought that such a small encounter would make him feel so emotional, but knowing that he was coming back and that also all of his other friends were about to show up at the hideout made his will to fight way stronger than his fear of losing to one of Domoto’s games before they could rescue him.

He hadn’t even realized that he had fallen asleep until he felt a light touch on his hair. It was weird how he didn’t shot up right away, but by now he could perfectly divide the people touching him and he didn’t mind this touch at all. Still unwilling to open his eyes Taiga tried to curl up even more and let out a displeased groan about getting woken up in the first place. As a reply he got a low chuckle, which was actually something which made him crack one eye open to look at the latter’s face.

“Guess the meeting exhausted you a lot if you slept through the night like this,” Reo said while still playing with one of Taiga’s strands of hair. “You will catch a cold like this.”

“If that is your only worry,” Taiga let out in a sleepy voice, before he sat up, resulting with Reo taking away his hand and shifting a little bit to the back, but his look remained soft.

“Did you by any chance come to take a look at me?” Taiga asked almost hopefully, because Reo had been way too distant over the past days, almost scaring Taiga. Not even sending Sakuma over would help him as much as having Reo by his side, after all the latter could understand his problems and fears way better.

“I’d love to say yes, but unfortunately there is another reason,” Reo replied, but the only part that was important for Taiga was the first half of the sentence. He formed a bright smile on hearing that Reo had actually failed in keeping his distance for long. “Here, change into these.”

Taiga eyed the clothes in Reo’s hand suspiciously and unfolded them with a scanning look.

“Are those training clothes?” Taiga asked perplex, but shouldn’t he have seen this coming after all?

“The letter says that the tournament will be in one week. And because Domoto wants you to fight in it he also wants you to train for it.”

“I am a class 2 fighter. Does he really think I could win any fight?”

“But this tournament has different rules. They will be similar to the fight your club had against the Dancing Rascals, but it will be a little bit more towards the street fight direction.”

Taiga rolled his eyes on that, because of course Domoto tried to make this tournament as entertaining as possible for himself and ignoring official fight club rules seemed to be the easiest way for him to do so.

“Even in street fights I am bad.”

“Just because you got taught to avoid them and not to win them. Let me show you how to fight in this tournament.”

“Wait, you are going to train me?” Taiga asked almost shocked and the latter bit his lip trying to suppress a smile. After all it wasn’t something bad, right? More like the opposite.

“For now, yes. But don’t relax too fast, who knows what Domoto has planned for you over this week.”

As if he could forget! But he could worry about that when it was time. For now he changed into the training clothes and got ready to train with Reo. The training would give him some nice distraction, but if he was able to fight serious in the tournament was a completely other problem.

***

Because the meeting had been late in the evening already and bringing Ueda to Kamenashi’s hideout had taken way longer than usual it was already dawn when Nikaido managed to make his way back to the fight club. At least he had been able to wait at Kamenashi’s hideout until the rain had stopped. He already prepared for all the shouting and scolding the moment he would enter without Ueda, but when he arrived in front of the club he halted when he saw two people sneaking around the entrance as if they weren’t sure if they were allowed to enter or not.

After everything that had happened over the last weeks Nikaido was carefully about judging people by their appearance, because on first sight both didn’t seem dangerous. They were just boys, one seeming still a little bit too young to even wander around the Underground, but that had been the same for Aran as well when he was in the same troop with Yasui, age didn’t matter after all. The other one seemed quite restless, but still didn’t dare to enter just like that.

“Is there any reason why you are running up and down in front of our club so early in the morning?” Nikaido asked as he approached the boys on which both flinched and turned towards him.

“Ehm, we- actually…” the younger one stumbled as Nikaido’s sudden appearance seemed to have scared him a lot.

“We are looking for our friends,” the other one said with a steady voice and patted the other one on the shoulder to calm him down. “We had to separate on the way to Tokyo and they told us to meet them at the North Tokyo Fight Club, which is here when I am not mistaking?”

Nikaido crossed his arms in front of his chest on which both tensed again, but he tried to soften his expression as much as possible, after all he knew who the boys were.

“Then you are Abe and Shintaro I guess?” Nikaido addressed them and both boys looked at him with wide eyes, first a little bit confused, but then their looks brightened up as they realized that their friends had made it and they had found the right club.

“Is your wound okay already?” Nikaido addressed the younger one and Shintaro nodded with a shy smile.

“It will still take some time to heal completely, but it is a lot better than before.”

“I know it’s really early in the morning, but can we meet with everyone?” Abe asked with an apologizing look, but who could blame him that he wanted to see his friends as fast as possible.

“Sure, come in. I bet Watanabe and Miyadate are awake anyways.”

“That early in the morning? And you were out until now as well?” Abe asked carefully on which Nikaido’s look darkened.

“Yes, at the Mugen hideout.”

That answer made both boys turn pale in the matter of seconds and they stared at the latter in pure shock. But before they could bombard him with questions he signaled them to enter the club.

“There are a lot of things I’ve to tell the others as well, so come in for now. I am not in the mood to tell everything twice.”

Nikaido walked inside the training room first, knowing that everyone was waiting for him there, because they still kept Kochi and Juri at the common room and they didn’t need to get any information about what was going on as long as they wouldn’t spill anything themselves.

Watanabe was the first one to approach him ready to scold him. “What the hell took you so long, why-”

“SHOTA!” Abe jumped in front of Watanabe so fast that the other one didn’t even realize who it was at first, but when he saw Shintaro also walking inside the room he finally smiled and hugged his friend back.

“Ryohei! You made it! Is everything alright? You didn’t get in any trouble on the way, did you?” Watanabe asked and pushed the other one back a little bit to be able to look at him.

“Everything is alright, don’t worry. We were lucky, because a lot of people helped us on the way. We were able to come almost the whole way by car, because a nice couple picked us up on the road,” Abe explained with a bright smile and Watanabe could do nothing but keep staring at him for a while. So now he had one reason less to be worried all the time.

“Shintaro, how is your wound?” Miyadate asked as he stepped closer and Shintaro clapped himself on the back.

“Way better. I won’t be able to fight for a while, but it won’t cause me any trouble for now.”

“So that is the former Mugen member?” Tegoshi asked all of a sudden, making Shintaro turn to the other people in the room. His look darkened all of a sudden when Tegoshi looked at him quite of doubting.

“I know after four people of your own club already turned out to be spies for Mugen it is hard to believe him that easily, but I guess we showed you that you can trust us, so please give them a chance as well,” Miyadate said in a soothing tone as he stepped next to Shintaro and squeezed his shoulder with an encouraging smile.

“I don’t doubt him,” Kentaro let out, which made Tegoshi look at him with a raised eyebrow.

“And that would be why?”

“Because Taiga trusted him and he has a really good sense for things like that. If he trusts him I will do so as well.”

That was actually the best thing to say, because Tegoshi couldn’t actually argue with him about that. Even though no one had seen Juri’s and Kochi’s betrayal coming he also didn’t want to start mistrusting every new person they came across so for now he would lay low.

“Nikaido, you are finally back! You worried us a lot. Who are those boys?” Nakai was heard behind him all of a sudden as he entered the room. But then he stopped and turned around once more, taking another look at the hallway before he turned back with a confused expression. “Where is Ueda?”

Now the others tensed as well. Abe’s and Shintaro’s sudden arrival had taken their whole attention, but now all eyes were on Nikaido.

“He is alright, don’t worry!” Nikaido said right away, before any panic could break out. “His wound got worse after the meeting and I dropped him off at Kamenashi’s hideout. And the boys are Shintaro and Abe.” Nikaido added and Nakai just nodded at both of them before he looked at Nikaido again. They didn’t seem bothered by the lag of attention after all they wanted to know what this talk was about as well.

“First of all Taiga is fine, I guess that is something you all should know.”

“You saw him?” Kentaro asked as he stepped closer, waiting for Nikaido to continue.

“It wasn’t actually pleasant for both sides to be honest,” Nikaido explained and the one who didn’t look surprised at all was Shintaro. After all he knew the way Domoto loved games.

“Is he still wearing the collar?” Watanabe asked carefully and when Nikaido nodded he let out a low curse.

“A collar?” Shintaro asked and the others nodded at him.

“Kentaro saw him at a Mugen meeting before and it seems like he is wearing a metal collar,” Miyadate explained.

“I don’t like that look,” Watanabe added when he kept looking at Shintaro who seemed even more worried now.

“It’s just… it confirms my worries that he is going through the same torture as Reo went through,” Shintaro let out in a low voice.

“So what? You want to tell us that Domoto tries to turn him into the same person Reo is?” Tegoshi asked kind of disbelieving. “As if Taiga would turn into such a crazy person so easily.”

“Don’t forget that he already hurt his friends on Domoto’s order,” Nakai warned him to make sure that everyone kept facing reality.

“But that was to protect them, not because he wanted to follow Domoto’s orders!” Kentaro protested right away on which Nakai looked at him with a calm expression.

“Don’t worry Kentaro. I am not saying that he is turning against us, but we have to watch out what games Domoto is playing, especially with the tournament coming up. You got all the information about it?” Nakai addressed Nikaido and the latter nodded, pulling out the envelope he had received earlier now opening it and unfolding the letter inside.

“The tournament will be held in one week at the Mugen hideout. Participating groups will be Avernus and the North Tokyo Fight Club.”

“Wait, isn’t that unfair? If they get their whole troop together why are we not allowed to get fighters from other fight clubs or members of the Titanium Triangle?” Kentaro complained and the others nodded right away.

“Would you let me finish this first and freak out later?” Nikaido scolded him and Kentaro pouted, but let him continue.

“For the North Tokyo Fight Club three members can be chosen from other fight Clubs or troops,” Nikaido continued giving them all a scolding look on which most of them rolled their eyes, but didn’t say anything this time. “From both sides 10 fighters have to enter the tournament, but just 4 fights will be held. The fighters will be chosen through a drawing system, not regarding their fighting class.”

Their looks darkened on that once more, because even with the 3 fighters they were allowed to bring from other troops they still had to choose 7 more fighters, but they didn’t have any other 5 class fighters than Ueda and Nikaido at the moment and Ueda was definitely not going to take part in that tournament. With the betrayal of their friends two good fighters were also out of question, which meant they needed to choose from lower classes.

Nikaido paused and flicked his tongue on which the others looked up at him.

“What is it?”

“I’d say it is a smart move, but it is really annoying,” Nikaido said before he read the next sentence. “Because we are going to let Kochi and Juri participate in the tournament, we would like you to bring them with you on the day of the tournament.”

“Is he insane? That doesn’t even make sense. He has enough strong people to fight for him, why does he need them?” Tegoshi let out in annoyance.

“Just to make sure that we won’t get any more information,” Nakai said with a frown. “Guess we have no other choice than agree to that condition.”

Nikaido nodded before he looked back at the letter. “Not competing fighters are also welcome as spectators, as long as they are not interfering in the tournament.”

“Hope he tells that to his hundreds of not participating members as well,” Shintaro let out in a serious tone on which the others nodded in approval. After all they were the bigger threat with the tournament taking place inside their hideout.

“Instead of announcing the names of the participating fighters before the tournament, their names have to be put into the drawing bucket without the other group knowing who is participating.”

“Oh great, now he is really treating this as a game,” Abe hissed.

“I’m looking forward to have a fair and entertaining tournament with you.”

“This guy’s attitude annoys me until no return,” Watanabe let out on Domoto’s way too honest sounding words.

“That’s it,” Nikaido said as he handed the letter to Nakai who kept it for now.

“So who are we choosing?” Tegoshi asked right away on which Nakai let out a sigh.

“For the three other members I will have a talk with the other fight clubs and the Titanium Triangle first, but I guess we should choose our fighters right away to make sure that you have the chance to train.”

Now all eyes were on him and no one was surprised when he looked at Nikaido first.

“I’m in,” Nikaido said before he could even ask and Nakai nodded with a grateful smile.

“Okay so Ueda is out of question and at the moment we have no other class five members left. There are two more class four members, but …”

“I am in,” Kentaro interrupted him before he could continue and even though Nikaido’s look turned kind of scolding there was no way he could be angry at him for that decision.

“I will join as well,” Tegoshi added and Nakai seemed quite grateful for their decision. Sure they had other fighters as well, but they weren’t that involved in what was going on and they feared instead of fighting with all they got, they would maybe just run away from the fight.

“Makes 3 fighters and the 3 outside the club, so 4 more,” Nakai concluded with a thoughtful expression. “I will try and have a talk with the other members. When we are lucky at least our two class four fighters are willing to join and we can just hope that he won’t get chosen to fight.”

“And what is about the other two members?” Nikaido asked curious on which Nakai gave him a weird smile before he turned towards the other direction, facing Watanabe and Miyadate.

“Interested in joining a new fight club?”

On that question the two boys exchanged an excited look before they faced Nakai with a lopsided smile. “Count us in!” Watanabe replied, while Miyadate nodded.

“Guess then at least our fighters are almost all chosen,” Nakai let out before he left them alone again to talk to the other fighters. Shintaro couldn’t fight either and the boy seemed extremely happy about not getting asked. On the other hand he would have loved to help, but he knew that he would just be a burden.

“I bet when he talks to Kamenashi that Fuma will butt in and say he will participate,” Kentaro let out with a chuckle on which Tegoshi and Nikaido couldn’t stop from grinning as well and the atmosphere brightened up at least a little bit.

“And then Kento will hit him and yell at him for being stupid,” Nikaido added, making them laugh even more.

“Okay so you two might want to take a rest for now,” Nikaido addressed Abe and Shintaro which seemed extremely grateful for the offer. “I’ll show you the rooms you can stay in and then we will start our training,” Nikaido said as he walked towards the door and the others nodded at him, because there was no way they would spend any unnecessary time resting for the next week. They had to give it their all to show Avernus what they were made of. After all as fight club members a tournament was their territory, no matter the weird circumstances.


	13. Chapter 13

It wasn’t the first kick which went through his defense, but definitely the strongest one and with a pained yelp Taiga found himself on the floor of the stage.

“Damn it, Reo! If you keep going like this then there will be no unbroken bone left in my body until the tournament.”

“And? Then you have a reason to not participate,” Reo replied in a calm voice and at first Taiga wanted to consider it a good thought, but then he got up with a scolding look.

“Right, so that you can take the punishment for that? No way!”

That reply actually made Reo laugh and he gave Taiga a moment to catch his breath, but they couldn’t actually take a break, after all there were a few members inside the theater, like always. They weren’t spending them any attention, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t there to watch them. It was clear that everything they did was going to be reported to Domoto later. The only good thing was that they were in the back of the theater, too far away from the stage to overhear their conversations.

“Ready?” Reo asked after a while and Taiga started circling around the other one with Reo copying his movements.

“I still doubt you’ll be able to make me a better fighter in one week anyway, so let’s get over with this as fast as possible.”

“What’s the hurry for? You want to get back to Domoto instead? Or are you hoping that I will treat your wounds later?”

“The wounds you caused in the first place! Sounds familiar doesn’t it?”

When had it started that both could smile about it? It hadn’t been easy for either of them to get closer to the other one and it was also quite hard to keep the right distance!

Without a warning Reo dashed forward and as always Taiga wasn’t fast enough to dodge his attack in time, but he somehow got his elbow in the way of the right hook coming to his face.

“You are thinking too much!” Reo said scolding and hit an upper cut into Taiga’s stomach before he could start a counter attack. “Don’t think about tactics. You are not fighting to win for your club you are fighting for your life!”

“Oh so dramatic today,” Taiga teased him as he got enough air back to speak and jumped back the next moment, trying to attack with a kick from the distance, but Reo blocked it without any problems.

“I can see through your attacks right away. Even if they come fast or if you spin around to confuse your opponent you are still an open book! You try to calculate the consequences of a risky attack and give yourself always an opportunity to run if a direct attack gets through your defenses,” Reo analyzed him again on which Taiga flicked his tongue.

“Oh and just running headfirst into an attack will guarantee me a win then? Let me ask you about that once more after my opponent broke my neck at such a risky attack.”

“It’s risky that is for sure, but if you succeed in staying focused while not letting your opponent read your attacks you might even be able to beat class five fighters.”

“Like you? As if,” Taiga let out with a raised eyebrow, after all he knew his limits and beating people like Reo or Ueda wasn’t something he could possibly do.

“It’s not about the physical strength remember that! You need the right technique and timing! I am not actually the type to be in the fifth class either, right?”

Taiga couldn’t deny that his words made sense, but they had just one week. How was he supposed to learn something that sounded almost impossible to him in such a short time?

When there was no new attack coming Taiga finally focused on Reo again, but the latter’s look had darkened all of a sudden. Without any obvious reason he seemed to wear his mask again, after all Taiga could perfectly tell his moods by now and this one was his most scary one. Unreadable and dangerous.

“Don’t think and don’t give up! Just remain focused!”

“What-”

There was no time for the question Taiga wanted to state, because Reo attacked him once more without a warning, but he seemed to have gotten even faster than before and even though Taiga succeeded in blocking his first punch he let out a hiss and stumbled back on the force the latter’s arm had crushed on his. Was he using full strength all of a sudden?

“Reo, what the hell? Why-”

Again Reo interrupted him, this time faking a punch to his stomach so that he would try to avoid it by backing off, but Reo had read his next move and made another step to the front just to jump up and spin around, landing a back kick against Taiga’s chest with such a force that it took the boy off his feet and made him slide over the floor for a few meters.

Taiga let out a painful cough, but had no time to relax, because Reo wouldn’t give him any break this time.

Before Taiga could get up again Reo had grabbed him by the hair and pulled him into a sitting position just to send him back to the floor with a direct punch to the face. Taiga rolled on his stomach with a groan, a small scream following when Reo kicked him on the back.

“Don’t run! Are you so easily giving up? A few attacks you couldn’t block and you throw in the towel?”

With gritted teeth Taiga got up on all four again, but before he could even think about any counter Reo kicked him against the side of his ribs so that he fell on his back. This time he closed his eyes for a moment, trying to calm down, after all Reo was right. He had gone through a lot of worse fights even in official tournaments. Was he holding back, because he knew he wouldn’t stand a chance against Reo? Or because he actually didn’t want to hurt the boy in the first place? Which was ridiculous, because Reo was hurting him pretty badly without even feeling guilty about it, or was he? Taiga was still not sure why he had suddenly put his walls up again, but maybe he needed them to be able to attack with full force or he wouldn’t be able to hurt Taiga either? It didn’t sound as ridiculous as he thought at first, so all he had to do was the same, right?

With Reo’s next move Taiga would have gotten another kick, this time right on his face, but he stopped Reo’s foot in time and pulled it to the side, twisting on his stomach with a fast movement, on which Reo lost balance and had no other choice but role over to not crush into the ground. But Taiga made sure to keep a hold on his leg, so that he couldn’t get away and after some struggling on the ground in which both tried to kick and punch the other one without success Taiga was sitting on top of the younger one, pressing him into the ground on his collar.

“Great, now you had the upper hand for one second, but in a real fight you would have lost it right away through not attacking! That was an awesome opportunity to hit a direct punch, if possible even to the throat! You could have maybe won through a knock out as well.”

“Shut it already! I know all the fucking theory stuff! But that doesn’t mean that I have to try it out on you! After all you are fighting in the tournament as well, right?”

That wasn’t even a real question, after all there was no way Domoto wouldn’t let Reo participate, but if they hurt each other bad enough to be unable to fight in the tournament, they’d both get punished for it. “So could you for now just cut it out and talk to me as you norma-”

By now Taiga was more than pissed at all the sudden attacks Reo threw at him out of nowhere and this time the boy had suddenly pulled him down on the hair while twisting his body under his so that he was able to kick away one of Taiga’s knees and change positions with him.

“Damn it, Reo, stop-”

“He’s watching,” Reo whispered next to his ear while he kept him down, so that he would stop struggling. That actually made Taiga want to punch himself, of course he was! He should have realized right away that it was normally just Domoto who made Reo switch back in his neutral mood this perfectly. And Taiga had almost blown their cover once more! He cursed inside for risking another punishment without even realizing it. Wasn’t it what he should expect of Domoto? That he would keep checking up on them from now on? Through Taiga’s fault his trust in the boy had crumbled and that meant Reo’s safety wasn’t something they could take for granted anymore. From now on it wasn’t just Reo helping Taiga, but also Taiga needing to get his act together to protect Reo!

“Guess for the first training this is enough! Think about what I told you and let’s see if you can finally stop all those unnecessary planning and calculating and fight for real at the next training,” Reo let out as he got up. Taiga remained on the ground for a moment, closing his eyes and taking a few deep breathes. After all the pain he was feeling wasn’t played at all and he was already sure that Reo’s attacks would show later on his skin, but they were just a few more bruises next to all the others Reo and Domoto had already caused him.

***

Even taking a shower seemed like a waste of time to Kentaro, but now that their first day of training was over and Nakai had made sure that they would all take a rest until the next day what else was he supposed to do? Two more fighters of their club had luckily joined them for the tournament, because why shouldn’t they? It wasn’t a personal matter this time as with the Fire Foxes, Domoto was threatening the existence of the whole Underground.

After Nakai had gone to talk to the Fire Foxes about the tournament there was already no need to ask Kamenashi if anyone would participate, because Kitayama had volunteered together with Daiki and Hikaru right away. They were joining their training from the next day, but that as well was something Kentaro could worry about when it happened. But his thoughts kept drifting off to the tournament and especially to Taiga, because he could still not stop worrying for his friend and even though he heard from Nikaido about him being more or less okay for now, he felt like he had to do more to rescue him, now and not later! Then there was also Aran, another chapter of this chaos which he still couldn’t explain and which caused him a headache each time he thought about him. With a sigh he closed his eyes and leant with his arms against the cold wall of the shower, but neither the cold nor the warmth of the water was able to distract him. Desperation was getting the best of him and he wasn’t sure if he was able to fight like this in the tournament.

He was ripped out of his thoughts when the water was suddenly turned off and a towel landed over his head, making him slightly flinch before he looked up over his shoulder with a confused expression.

“What are you doing?”

“Saving warm water?” Nikaido replied innocently on which Kentaro raised an eyebrow at him and turned around completely. Nikaido was wearing loose pants and no shirt, obviously getting ready to go to bed and waiting for Kentaro to finally get out the shower, but the fact that he had come taking a look meant that Kentaro had indeed taken way too long.

“Don’t look at me like that, you are not the only one who is troubled, but that doesn’t mean that you have to beat yourself for not being able to help more.”

Of course Nikaido understood what he was most depressed about and his look darkened again, but then Nikaido’s hands were on the towel, ruffling his hair dry with it on which Kentaro let out a squeal and tried to stop him.

“I can do that myself,” he complained as he tried to get away, but Nikaido just took away the towel to put it around Kentaro’s lower body this time and pulled him closer.

“And? Does that mean I am not allowed to take care of you anymore?” The older one asked with a played hurt expression on which Kentaro had to try hard and not crack a teasing smile, but he just succeeded half in keeping a serious expression.

“Are you sure you want to take care of me with the mood swings I have recently?”

Instead of a direct answer Nikaido pulled him closer on the towel and leant down to him, a few water drops from Kentaro’s hair landing on his nose when his lips were right in front of his.

“There won’t ever be a time I don’t want to take care of you when you feel troubled,” Nikaido whispered against the boy’s lips and first Kentaro wanted to lean forward, but then he stepped back instead with a guilty expression.

“Thank you,” he let out honestly, but his mood had easily switched back to gloomy. “But I guess at the moment we have to concentrate on the tournament. Can we go to bed now?” Kentaro asked almost carefully on which Nikaido gave him a short kiss on the hair before he caressed his cheek with his thumb.

“Sure, but next time don’t try to make me believe that you are fine, you hear me? At least talk to me, okay?”

Kentaro nodded hesitantly, looking up at the older one with an apologizing expression. But Nikaido didn’t seem angry at him and that was another point that made him relax for now, after all they had just found back together and he couldn’t but be impressed how easily Nikaido put his trust in him once more, so he should do the same!

***

It was definitely the weirdest situation Taiga had found himself in since he had ended up at Mugen and he wasn’t sure how to handle it, because it wasn’t actually dangerous, at least not as long as things wouldn’t suddenly change which was of course possible, because the other person in the room was Domoto and his mood swings and games were unpredictable. Which he had just proven again, because Taiga could still not explain why the man was treating his wounds this time instead of Reo. There were also a lot of other people which could do it or he could just do it himself, after all the bruises he had gotten from Reo at the training were nothing compared to what he had gone through over the last weeks. And still here was Domoto, sitting on the side of the bed with Taiga next to him, treating his wounds. The boy sat cross-legged and leaned slightly to the back to rest at the wall and he wasn’t sure where to look, because facing the ground had made the other one scold him already, because he wanted to treat the cut on the side of his lip which he couldn’t do when Taiga was looking down all the time. But facing the man while he was that close gave Taiga an extremely unpleasant feeling and he still tried to somehow avoid facing him directly.

Suddenly one of Domoto’s hands was under the boy’s chin on which he flinched, but relaxed right away as he realized that it wasn’t an attempt to try anything, but just a warning that he had again lowered his head.

“This would end way quicker if you stopped moving all the time,” the older one scolded him when he took another pad which he moved up to Taiga’s eye which was slightly swollen. With his hand under the boy’s chin he moved his head to the side and Taiga closed his eyes when he moved the pad over the side of his eye. “Reo really didn’t go easy on you and that on the first day of training. Maybe I’ve to remind him that this training isn’t of any use if he breaks you.”

“He won’t do that,” Taiga let out faster than he wanted, but even though Domoto hadn’t said it he obviously meant that he would have to punish Reo if the boy hurt Taiga so much that he wouldn’t be in a good condition for the tournament. “He did what was necessary to make me fight serious.”

“Oh? Already such a progress on the first day, what a pleasant surprise,” the older one let out with one of his brightest smiles as he got up and took the medical supply with him as he walked over to the door. “I’ll have to attend another meeting, but you should rest, I doubt your training with Reo will be any easier tomorrow.”

No of course it wouldn’t, especially not after he felt so beaten today already. He could just hope that Domoto wasn’t watching the training all the time or they would get serious problems with keeping their distance without hurting each other too serious. It seemed like they had moved into a black or white state. They could either get along or go back to what they were before Reo opened up to him, there was no in between.

“Good night, Taiga.”

“Good night.”

It had already become a habit, but while it felt weird to Taiga at first he didn’t mind having those random conversations with the leader anymore. It was a lot more pleasant than having to bow to him or apologize for something he had said or done and definitely a lot nicer than getting punished all the time. But that didn’t mean that he would let his guard down, after all he knew that the only reason Domoto was suddenly treating him with kid gloves was the upcoming tournament. He wanted to present him in a good condition, like a trained dog he could release from the leash to fight!

With a sigh Taiga dropped to the side, crawling under the covers and pulling them over his head. It was definitely not the time to feel relaxed in any kind of way and somehow he feared that Domoto wanted exactly that, making him feel safe and out of the danger zone just to throw him back into hell when he was the least prepared for it. But at least for this one week he should be safe, shouldn’t he? And the outcome of the tournament would bring huge changes after all even though he was still not sure how they would exactly look like. What would happen if Mugen won? And their club? They hadn’t actually spoken about a price or anything, for now it just seemed like a way to get a ceasefire between them, but what would happened if the war was about to continue? He tried to not overthink it for now, because a headache was the least he could use now, his other wounds were enough already. For now he had to make a plan how to face Reo at the training for the upcoming days without getting too pissed at the boy and without blowing their cover on the other side.


	14. Chapter 14

As planned Kitayama showed up with Hikaru and Daiki the next day to join their training, but as much as they tried to not overdo it they all seemed way too tense to take proper breaks, even though they all knew that there was no way they could make such a big change to their fighting through just one week of training.

With Kitayama and the others Ueda had also finally come back, after Kitayama had picked him up at Kamenashi’s hideout to make sure that there was no trouble on his way back. But Miyata had cut every conversation between them short and had made sure that he was going straight to the med room. It was rare to see Miyata that angry, but after he had already tried to stop Ueda from going to the Mugen meeting in the first place he seemed ready to tie him to the bed to make sure that he would rest properly this time and there was definitely no way that Ueda was allowed out of that room before the day of the tournament.

“Okay if you are all not sitting down for at least half an hour I will lock you all in separate rooms with your hands and legs tight together so that you won’t be able to move!”

“So dramatic,” Watanabe teased Nikaido, but the death glare he received made him shut up right away and he step behind Miyadate who had to try hard not to laugh at his reaction. “How are you able to survive next to him?” He addressed Kentaro who was standing next to them now with a teasing smile on his lips.

“If you think he is scary now you should have seen him when I entered the club,” Kentaro replied almost proud.

“No thank you, I really don’t want to imagine.”

“Then take a break or I will show you personally!” Nikaido interfered once more on which Watanabe dragged Miyadate with him towards the mats in the back to sit down next to Tegoshi who had been easier convinced to take a break and was handing them his water bottle. The other two fighters which had joined them were training with Kitayama and the others, but Nikaido was sure that Kitayama would make sure that they would also not overdo it, because after all they would make everything even worse if they were too exhausted to fight properly at the tournament.

“Don’t be too harsh with them. They can’t be as calm as you, after all they are no class five fighters and they also went through a lot because of Mugen,” Kentaro said as he walked up to Nikaido who handed him his towel and made sure that he would sit down on the side of the ring for now to also take a break.

“I know, but the same as you they will do more harm than good if they overdo it.”

“I’ve the feeling those two have their own way of taking care of their worries, the same as we do,” Kentaro let out with a knowing smile towards the boys which had finally found the calmness to take a rest with Watanabe lying with his head on Miyadate’s legs, while the latter leant with his back on the wall, playing with the older one’s hair.

“The one I am most worried for at the moment is Tegoshi to be honest, he starts getting quieter again.”

“Maybe this time you should leave it at this. After all he could use some extra strength at the tournament and exploding at the fight will definitely give him exactly that.”

“Also true,” Nikaido let out with a brief nod before he got distracted by the sound of the door.

“Already done with training? Guess you are all getting out of shape!”

“Says the one who stopped fighting completely,” Kentaro teased back right away on the sight of Fuma in the doorframe. “Is it really okay that you walk around already?”

“Walking, yes. Nothing more!” Kento replied instead with a scolding look towards the latter who just rolled his eyes.

“Where is Sou?” Kentaro asked curious when it was just the two entering.

“In the med room. Since we came here in the morning together with Ueda and the others he is talking to Miyata about a lot of medical things non stop and because Abe and Shintaro are there as well he has enough other people to annoy if Miyata gets tired of him.”

“As long as he won’t start annoying Ueda, that could get dangerous,” Nikaido added on which the others let out a chuckle.

“I’ve the feeling Miyata is so overprotective of Ueda at the moment that he would love to open an extra med room just for him, so he will definitely stop Sou from even getting close to him,” Kento added with a smile.

“But isn’t that cute, you two finally adopted a child, you get to be commoners sooner than I thought,” Daiki teased them as he also finally took a break and stepped next to them. But what he hadn’t seen coming was the slap on the back of the head he received from Kento on his teasing.

“And here I thought it was a safe choice to stand next to you instead of Fuma,” Daiki let out while rubbing his head.

“Oh, I would normally not hit you, but I know Fuma would love to, but that would mean too much moving around so I hit you instead.”

“I’m still impressed how good you know me,” Fuma let out proudly as he formed a lopsided smile towards Daiki who pouted at them.

“Such a shame you are not fighting anymore. This would have been the perfect possibility for us to fight again.”

“Would have definitely been interesting, especially when you have to fight fair,” Fuma teased back.

“It wasn’t me who threw a bed down the stairs last time!”

“And it wasn’t me who pulled out a knife.”

“So both of you didn’t screw up the most on that day, congratulations,” Kitayama interfered as he told Hikaru and the other two fighters to take a break as well and walked over to Daiki.

“I’d say the one who screwed up the most doesn’t have to be reminded of it,” Kentaro let out to everyone’s surprise and soon all eyes were on Nikaido.

“Seems like you need to train more after all, you still seem to have too much energy if you can keep teasing like that,” Nikaido let out on which everyone relaxed again. After all they still weren’t used to Nikaido not freaking out through the smallest offense and they still weren’t sure if he couldn’t get extremely scary again if it was someone else than Kentaro who would let out something like he just did.

“Good, more training sound perfect. Come on Kentaro.”

“Ehm, Fuma didn’t we just say that you are not allowed to train?” Kentaro asked confused as the latter stepped forward and grabbed Kentaro by the wrist to pull him towards the punching bags.

“That doesn’t mean that I can’t stand next to you and scold you, after all Nikaido just proved that he got way too soft towards you,” Fuma replied and even Kento didn’t object his decision. “And you know yourself how boring it is to just lie around in the med room, so let me have some fun while shouting at you.”

“Why does this training session seems like a punishment all of a sudden?” Kentaro asked perplex on which the others started laughing.

“Deserves you right, maybe some different training is exactly what you need to calm down later,” Nikaido said as he let Fuma drag the boy away from them.

“You are all such traitors!” Kentaro shouted back at them over his shoulder with a fake angry expression.

“Just please keep an eye on him that he doesn’t get carried away,” Kento asked of the others which nodded right away.

“Are you not staying?” Nikaido asked when Kitayama and Daiki moved over to the mats to take a break as well.

“To be honest I wanted to have a talk with Juri and Kochi if that is okay?”

That actually made Nikaido raise both eyebrows at the boy, but Kento didn’t seem as confident about his decision either and who could blame him? They had been friends as well and hearing about their betrayal was definitely an unpleasant blow for him and Fuma as well.

“If you think you can handle it I won’t stop you, but I can just warn you that at least Kochi isn’t behaving at all like the person we used to know.”

Kento just nodded on that, knowing that there was no way he would walk in there and see his friends smiling at him, but he still felt like he couldn’t just leave the topic alone like this. He needed to at least try and understand them.

***

As expected the first sting was already through seeing Kochi and Juri being tied up like that on two chairs in the common room. He had been told that there were always at least two people watching them, but he had requested to be left alone with them and the two fighters in the room had told him that they would wait outside.

“What a surprise. Back in the Underground? Did you already fail among the commoners? Or was it Fuma who screwed up?”

Kento didn’t react to Kochi’s mocking, instead he kept looking at the two boys with a sad expression. While Kochi seemed as if he had gone through a character twist Juri had just fallen silent. Over the last days the only time he actually spoke was when he needed to go to the toilet.

Kento rested with his eyes on him a while longer and Juri seemed to feel more than uneasy through the intense stare out of a sudden and lowered his head even more.

“No predict? You were so good in talking things out all the time. I doubt you have come here just to look at us with those puppy eyes.”

Once more Kento ignored him and proceeded to take a chair from one of the other tables and sit down right in front of Juri who flinched on that move.

“Are you fucking ignoring me?” Kochi hissed at the other one as he tried to look over to them, but his chair was facing the other direction than Juri’s so he had to look over his shoulder to be even able to see a bit of what was going on behind him.

“I’m not talking to you as long as you keep behaving that ridiculous,” Kento addressed him, but didn’t bother to take his eyes off Juri who seemed ready to resolve into thin air in front of him.

“Oh, sorry did I hurt your feelings through showing you who I really am? Let me show you at the tournament what else I can do! Will Fuma fight? It would be my pleasure to destroy him in front of your eyes.”

That actually made Kento move again and he shot up, making Juri jolt, but Kento moved away from him once more to grab the tape which was lying on one of the tables. He walked over to Kochi while ripping a part of it off before tossing the tape back on another table. Before Kochi could say anything else Kento had gagged him with the tape on which Kochi let out a furious scream which didn’t leave his throat.

“Keep talking nonsense as much as you want when I am done, but for no I want you to shut up! Hiding behind that kind of wall is something I’ve seen often enough in the Underground already, so I have no intention of listening to your try to convince yourself that you are such a cruel creature, because I know you aren’t.”

Kochi kept throwing daggers at him with his eyes, but the latter proceed to move over to Juri again and sat down once more, his eyes back on the younger one.

“And you try to silence your guilt away,” Kento addressed him, but of course Juri didn’t reply. He bit his lip and kept facing the ground, but it was clear that he wasn’t as good as Kochi with keeping his walls up.

“I wasn’t present when you entered this club, but I heard stories from Taiga and Kentaro. Did you know how much those two appreciate your friendship, your help? You did so much for those two and here you backstab them! Hearing about how you fought with Taiga when you entered the club I’ve the feeling it was still part of the plan, wasn’t it? It could have been anyone in particular, but you needed to find out more about the fighters in the club so you tried and start quarrels here and there and find out about people’s limits and weaknesses while Kochi kept calm next to you analyzing anyone.”

It wasn’t even a question, because it was clear that he was right on the way Juri’s look turned even darker. Kochi kept struggling behind him from time to time, but there was no way he would get his hands free anyways, so the tape would remain where it was for now as well.

“But what you hadn’t expected was getting accepted by them! Not just by the other members of the club, but even by Kentaro and Taiga which seemed like your biggest enemies at first and grew to be your closest friends.”

His words slowly showed effect as Juri started shaking and his breathing pace seemed to get slightly erratic. As he suddenly shook his head Kento felt a weird kind of relief, because even if he continued denying the truth he had at least reacted and that was all he needed for now. He wanted to reach them, but while Kochi’s mask wasn’t easily broken, Juri seemed to struggle a lot between the mission they have gotten and all the experiences he had gone through over the last years.

“I’ve no clue how you two ended up at Mugen, but what I’ve learnt over the last weeks is that not all of them are doomed to remain there! Some were able to break free, to choose another part and I know you two good enough to know that it wasn’t easy for you to keep carrying out your mission especially after everything that happened with Nikaido and Kentaro.”

Thinking back Kento felt another sting, because they had faced so much together that the situation they were in now seemed so unreal to him.

“Why did you leave the club and search for Taiga and Kentaro with us if you could have just waited and let them run into their own death? You would have gotten rid of Nikaido and most likely Ueda and Tegoshi as well at that time. You could have run our fight club into self destruction and return to Mugen without even getting blamed for anything, but you didn’t! You helped us find them! You made them believe in their strength when they were about to give up, you even got help when it seemed like we were about to lose the fight! Why didn’t you keep fighting for them?”

First there was silence, but then there was a small sound, which Juri tried to stop from growing louder, but he failed miserably as another sob escaped him and he stomped the ground with his foot with a curse when a tear dropped on his leg.

“Why Juri? Why did you suddenly turn your backs on everyone after you seemed so close to break free yourselves?”

“Because there is no way to escape from Avernus…” Juri let out with a shaking voice, still trying to get in control of his emotions again. “...you don’t know anything about them, the consequences which awaits those who fail in running!”

“But there are those who made it! Shintaro is with us at the moment and he made it out alone. You could have made it even easier with our help. What reason made you suddenly turn back?”

Juri suddenly lifted his head, his tears now drying on his cheeks and Kento held his breath on seeing the hurt expression of the boy. To his surprise Kochi had stopped struggling the moment Juri had finally started talking.

“He made us kill some of the traitors ourselves. Each and everyone of us has blood on our hands! It was a good tactic to scare us and show us what would await us if we dared to betray them.”

Kento felt nauseous all of a sudden, but even though he could imagine how horrible all the memories were for them it still didn’t make sense.

“But all that happened before you entered the club, since then you risked a lot. Something must have happened recently to make you turn back!”

“Aran and Hagiya came out of a sudden, which showed us that he was doubting our loyalty, what else were we supposed to do?”

It was a good point, but still didn’t convince Kento, something else was missing in his explanation.

“I heard from Kentaro and the others about them and you really tried hard to not let show that you four were connected and it seemed to have worked until Kentaro had accidently overheard you. But those two were discovered before you, so you could have still dropped out, but you didn’t! There is something else, Juri. I know you are not telling me about something.”

Juri shook his head right away, but the reaction came too fast and too obvious so that Kento knew that he was right and suddenly he understood what was going on, after all he had just said it himself, hadn’t he? They had grown closer to them than they were supposed to!

“You heard about Taiga being with Mugen! That was why you suddenly continued your mission!”

“Nonsense, why would we even care?” Juri tried to convince Kento, but once more he failed completely in lying to him.

“You knew that Reo had the information about Taiga being a member of this club, so you feared that if you suddenly betrayed Mugen it would affect Taiga’s safety.”

“That doesn’t even make sense. Why would we even care about-”

It was rare for Kento to lose his patience, but Juri had succeeded in making it happen and the latter had suddenly jumped up and gave  Juri a harsh slap on which even Kochi jolted and looked with wide eyes over his shoulder.

“OF COURSE YOU CARE! STOP LYING TO YOURSELF, BOTH OF YOU!” Kento freaked at them and didn’t even bother with trying to calm down again. “IF YOU DIDN’T CARE THAN UEDA WOULD BE DEAD NOW AND NOT JUST HURT!”

Kento clenched his fists while trying hard to not keep shouting at them, after all the other fighters would definitely interrupt them if he kept shouting all the time.

“Why can’t you trust us?”

The question seemed to confuse Juri as he looked up at the latter and when he saw tears glittering in Kento’s eyes he bit his lip with a guilty expression.

“We trusted you and we still do! You should know us well enough to know that we won’t just give up on you like this! Many of us did stupid mistakes over the past and we all came to their rescue! Why can’t you take our hands to let us rescue you? You know our strength! There is no way we will let them keep Taiga, but this is something we can archive together. There is no need for you to sacrifice what you have built up over the time in this club to try and keep Taiga safe on your own, we are all here to do that together.”

Without waiting for an answer Kento moved over to Kochi and freed him from the tape, but for the first time in this conversation Kochi had nothing to say, his walls were finally about to crumble and his expression jumping from one to another in seconds.

“I guess you two should have a talk for now. The tournament is in a few days, you might want to decide for a side until that day.”

Without another word Kento left them alone, making sure that the other fighters would wait outside for a while longer so that the other two could have a talk. He had reached his own limits through this conversation and needed to get away before he could get a breakdown in front of them. Of course he could understand them, but that was also what made him so angry. On one hand they tried to still protect the club members, but on the other hand they left them out of their plans, getting ready to jump off the cliff while ignoring all the hands which were reaching out for them. It didn’t happen that often that Kento felt the need to hit someone that badly and a few minutes more in the room and he would have definitely get even more violent which had made him leave. They had finally accepted that whatever they did the club members wouldn’t see them as the enemy Domoto was, even though they were Avernus members. But showing them the right way was all they could do for now. If they really wanted to take that path was something they had to decide for themselves.


	15. Chapter 15

The second and third day of training had gone by without any big trouble or injuries. Reo and Taiga had somehow found their balance and kept training serious without getting too distracted when Domoto kept a look at them.

The next day Domoto had told Taiga in the morning that he was going to attend a meeting with the Dancing Rascals and Storm Warriors for the upcoming tournament which made Taiga relax a lot when he was escorted to the training later.

Reo had obviously also heard about Domoto not being around for the training, because there was no other explanation for the faint smile he was carrying over the first half of the training. As usual they trained seriously, after all there were still other people watching them, but the usual tension between them was gone, which made it way easier to actually concentrate on the training instead of faking the serious atmosphere between them for Domoto.

“Your injuries seem to get treated quite good,” Reo said when he circled around Taiga waiting for another attack from the boy.

“But Domoto isn’t as skilled with treating them as you are.”

“Oh, such a shame. Shall I tell him that you prefer me?”

Instead of an answer Taiga dashed forward, but the attack was more or less fake and instead of seriously attack he kept struggling with Reo while both were pulling and pushing a bit to make it look like they tried to get the upper hand, while they actually just needed to get closer to not get overheard by the few people which were walking through the theater, but by now they seemed quite bored as well to take a look after the boys and didn’t spend them any attention for most of the time.

“I always prefer you,” Taiga let out as he kept trying to pull Reo to the ground, but of course the latter hold against it, now forming a teasing smile.

“Shall I feel honored or offended now? Because I’ve no intentions of becoming your personal nurse.”

Taiga chuckled on that, knowing that Reo got that he didn’t just meant that point.

“Did he try anything?” Reo asked all of a sudden, this time a little bit more serious on which Taiga’s grip got weaker and the other one used his distraction to throw him to the ground and sit on top of him.

“No, he didn’t,” Taiga replied after he had landed on the ground way softer than he had thought he would, but Reo had stopped his fall instead of letting him just drop, after all they could take it easier for once.

“Mh, are you behaving that obedient at the moment or is he getting bored of you?”

“Maybe he is just careful because of the tournament.”

“I doubt that to be honest, trust me if he wants to play his games he doesn’t care about the consequences.”

“Then I guess I am just good at not showing any weakness at the moment, so that he can’t keep playing.”

That was actually what Reo had thought as well, after all Taiga had found back to a stable condition and made sure not to get carried away too much. He wasn’t surrendering easily, but also not snapping as much as before anymore.

“That’s good for now I guess, but remember at some point it might be better to let him see your weakness. Especially when he starts playing again, because if he feels like he got the upper hand he will leave you alone for a while.”

Before Taiga replied to that he took the latter by surprise and turned them around even though Reo almost succeeded in stopping him, but something told Taiga that he didn’t actually try for real, after all Taiga was still way weaker than him.

“Thanks for the advice, I will remember it,” Taiga let out with a brief smile before he wanted to get up, but Reo’s hands were suddenly on his metal collar which made him tense. Reo looked to the side for a brief moment and Taiga wanted to follow his look, even though he realized that he wanted to check if anyone was looking at them. But before he could actually turn his head, Reo pulled with such a force on the collar that Taiga fell to the front and had to stop his fall with his arms next to Reo’s head.

When he realized what he was up to it was already too late and Reo had moved his other hand to the back of Taiga’s head to pull him down the last few centimeters which were between them to be able to kiss him. Taiga tensed right away, knowing how dangerous a move like that was, especially at their training and he tried right away to make him let go, but just for a moment longer Reo held him down.

When he released him, Taiga looked down at him with a scolding expression, but the boy’s look was actually taking away the need to shout at him. For just a brief moment he looked just like a normal teenager who had secretly stolen a kiss from his crush and the teasing smile he was forming made Taiga shake his head and hit him against his forehead.

“Idiot,” he let out in a scolding tone before he got off him before anyone would spend them any attention.

Reo remained on his back for a moment while Taiga sat next to him, waiting for him to get up. The latter seemed lost in his thoughts for a while, but they needed a break after all, so for now Taiga crossed his legs and kept looking at the other one.

“It’s good that you have someone to go back to, like this you keep fighting,” Reo said all of a sudden.

“So what makes you keep fighting?” Taiga’s question seemed to confuse the other one as he turned his head towards him with a raised eyebrow.

“What makes you believe that I keep fighting?”

“You want to tell me that you are not?”

“For what reason should I? As you see there is no collar around my neck anymore, so I’ve surrendered.”

“But you keep fighting for me,” Taiga reminded him and that was something the other one couldn’t deny.

“Which is something I should maybe stop for both of our safety.”

“You are not that strong,” Taiga teased him on which Reo narrowed his eyes. “What? You keep giving in when you are too close to me for too long, just like now.”

Somehow it felt so good to be able to have such a teasing conversation with someone even in the mess they were in. Reo had helped him out of the worst situations until now, had made sure that he would find his way back to the surface and had even accepted the punishments for it.

“Oh so now you like it when I approach you?”

“You just said yourself I have someone I want to go back to, so you should know that as much as you approach me I will be stronger than you and won’t surrender.”

It actually sounded like a challenge, which was also how Reo had understood it and a challenging smile appeared on his lips.

“For now I guess we can just see who is stronger in fighting, all the other stuff has to stay second,” Reo let out before he got up again and stretched his arm out towards Taiga to drag him up.

“If we can make it our priority then that means there is no need for fighting anymore, that would actually be great,” Taiga replied before Reo let go of him and went back into training mode. But as soon as there was no need to fight anymore Taiga hoped that he could finally make his way back to his friends, but that also meant that he would get separated from Reo most likely.

***

“Two more days of training, I am not even sure if I’ll survive them,” Watanabe complained as he dropped on the bed in his and Miyadate’s room while the latter tossed his shirt on the other bed already to get ready to take a shower.

“I doubt Nikaido will let us train much the last day before the tournament so I guess it is more like one more training plus a day of strategies training.”

“Sounds good to me,” Watanabe let out as he turned on his back, crossing his arms behind his head and closed his eyes when a yawn escaped him.

“This tournament will be more than unfair, I’m not even sure what he aims for with it,” Miyadate let out before he went over to the chair and got the towel, throwing it over his shoulder.

“Playing around that’s all. But for now it gives us a break and the Underground the possibility to come up with a plan, that’s why we accepted, right?”

“But the question is what will happen after the tournament? Whichever side wins there is no way things will end calmly.”

“But now we are in Tokyo and have the Titanium Triangle on our side and even with the Reapers gone I’d say we are stronger than one insane freak with his brainwashed followers.”

“Don’t be so sure of that or do I have to remind you what one of those brainwashing freaks triggered in Germany? I bet you don’t have to be reminded of the impact it had all over the world,” Miyadate scolded him on which Watanabe made a grimace, but he couldn’t deny that he was right. What if it wasn’t just the Underground which got affected by Avernus? If it grew to be something bigger, than this could become a nationwide problem or even bigger.

“But a few of his followers are easily convinced to break free,” Watanabe tried to find a light in the dark on which Miyadate walked over to his bed and sat down next to him on which the latter opened his eyes again and turned to the side.

“I know. Shintaro is not the only one who wanted to run, but remember what Kento just told us? That they were forced to kill those who tried to escape? I bet he has even more cruel methods to make sure that they will keep being obedient.”

“But if we show them that there are people who will protect them then they might start to rebel. Kento made clear that he was going to help them and even though they didn’t jump into his arms right away they are thinking and that is already a big step!”

Miyadate nodded, knowing that this was indeed what they needed. If they could show those who had been forced to join Mugen that there was a way out if they all worked together then they could indeed turn Domoto’s game around.

“Guess our first step is to win the tournament then,” Miyadate said confident on which Watanabe nodded encouraging.

***

The next day also passed without trouble even though Taiga and Reo had to have a real training session again with Domoto sitting directly on the stage this time with an entertained look towards them and something else shining in his eyes which they couldn’t really spend attention to as they were trying to keep a neutral atmosphere between them, which didn’t make Taiga relax at all. There was just one more day of training left and even though Reo had succeeded in turning his fighting style upside down over just a few days that didn’t mean that he would just be able to fight against his friends.

The evening had been quite calm as well, because he had been alone since the training had ended and was now taking a shower, taking a look at the new bruises he had gotten at the training, but as before they weren’t such a big deal. For the first time in this week he had even stood a small chance against Reo, but somehow he was sure that the younger one had let him get the upper hand on purpose to show Domoto that the training was actually showing some results.

With a sigh he closed his eyes for a moment, letting the hot water run over his face while he still tried to somehow prepare for the tournament mentally, but he failed again as always. The shock about a hand suddenly landing over his eyes making him unable to see who had suddenly appeared behind him made him jolt. Through the sound of the shower he hadn’t even realized that someone had entered, but when the other one closed his other arm around his upper body to stop him from struggling he could already tell that whatever was happening was definitely not going to end pleasant.

“Let go! What-”

His shock got even bigger when he realized that a second person was suddenly in front of him, pressing his hand over his mouth so that his words died in his throat. When he felt a touch on his thigh he tried to struggle and kick blindly to the front, but the other one pulled him back against the wall, so that they were away from the shower, but the second one also followed their movements and tried to lift Taiga’s legs up. It was clear what he tried and out of a sudden Taiga felt like he had been thrown back to the game Domoto had played with him at the castle, but was that even making sense? Why would he suddenly corner him like this again? And somehow it didn’t seem like his attackers would just stop like this as all the others did before. When Taiga heard how the other one opened his pants after he took away his hand from Taiga’s mouth he started panicking and struggled with all his might, succeeding in kicking the person in front of him away and drag the one behind him with him to the floor as he let himself drop down to get out of his grip.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!” Taiga shouted at them as he was finally able to see again. Instead of getting even more scared he got extremely angry out of a sudden and lunged out with his elbow to the back, hitting the one behind him against the head so that he fell to the side with a pained yelp, when he turned to the front again and wanted to attack the person in front of him he halted when his look fell on a third person in the room which was standing in the doorframe of the bathroom door with a calm, almost mocking smile, which made Taiga freak completely.

“WHAT WAS THAT FOR?” Taiga shouted at Domoto who snapped his fingers on which the other two got up and left the room in a rush while Domoto stepped in front of Taiga.

“Oh, you want to tell me you don’t know?”

So he seriously wanted to tell him that there was an actual reason behind the sudden attack? But why was he even surprised? Domoto always found weird reasons to play again and after all he hadn’t done anything in a while, maybe he got bored of just watching so he was just searching for some stupid excuse to make Taiga suffer again.

“Know what? I trained with Reo as you told me! I didn’t do anything to offend you at all!”

While it was the truth to Taiga it seemed to make Domoto angry and he crouched down to the boy who was still sitting on the ground. Not because he was too afraid to get up, but because he already felt exposed enough sitting naked in front of the other one so he didn’t need to make the situation even more awkward. But when Domoto suddenly grabbed him by the metal collar and pulled him closer he had no other choice, but to sit up on his knees if he didn’t want the pressure to cut off his air.

“You are really good at pretending, but that isn’t the same as obedience!”

Taiga didn’t understand and just kept staring at the other one who took him by full surprise as he grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head backwards the moment he forced a kiss on him. It didn’t even take more than a second for Taiga to start struggling, especially because the other one had succeeded in shoving his tongue inside his mouth through the gasp the boy had let out through the rough attack.

His anger had reached its peak and once more Taiga left all caution behind and bit the latter on the tongue on which the older one backed off, but he didn’t leave it at that. He slashed away both of his hands before he lunged out and gave Domoto a harsh slap with his flat hand, leaving a faint red mark on the latter’s cheek.

The silence that followed was just disturbed by the sound of the still running water and Taiga’s erratic breathing, but he still kept looking at the latter with a hateful glare.

“So I guess it’s really just a matter of taste,” Domoto let out in a calm voice as he got up as if nothing had happened. “Because once more you’ve shown me that you are definitely not the surrendering type. But that doesn’t mean that I will let you two go on like this. I’ll make sure to make that point clear all and for once.”

When he turned around instead of attacking Taiga again the boy could finally connect the dots and it made him freeze for a moment. It had been a trap and they both had been stupid enough to fall into it. He hadn’t been at any meeting the previous day. But he had made both believe it and with that they had let their guard down. Observing their training today had definitely fueled his anger, because of course they behaved like nothing was wrong, like they were the same enemies as before, even though he had seen the day before that they weren’t.

“Wait!” Taiga let out almost panicked as Domoto was already out the bathroom and headed to the bedroom door. Taiga didn’t even try to grab a towel or his clothes as he dashed after him and he got a grip on his wrist as the latter was about to open the door. “Don’t punish him!”

With the next move Taiga found himself on the ground, a burning pain on his cheekbone. But Domoto didn’t stop at one punch. With his mask suddenly crumbling again and revealing the same insane expression from the night Taiga had brought him to his limits the latter sat down on top of the boy and hit him a few times more until Taiga could taste his own blood in his mouth.

“If I hear one more word about Reo out of your mouth I’ll make sure to level this game up to a point where you won’t even be able to beg me for mercy anymore.”

No it was definitely not the moment to keep defying the leader, but was it really right to stay silent to not get punished even more while he would go and punish Reo then? Taiga opened his mouth, but at the last moment he decided against any new try to stop him. He wouldn’t stop anyway, would he? Out of jealously he tried to make them stay away from each other, like a teenager trying to stop the person he liked to fall for someone else.

“Did I make myself clear?” Domoto asked in a dangerous voice as he lifted Taiga up on the collar once more and the boy nodded hesitantly before he got tossed down to the ground again. “If you two like playing together that much I will make sure to include you into the same game the next time you dare to play around like that behind my back.”

With that Domoto slammed the door shut behind him and Taiga turned to the side with a cough, hitting the ground with the side of his fist with a loud curse. It wasn’t fair that Domoto was punishing Reo for something he was actually teaching the boy. He was the one always playing his games and taking advantages of all the people around him, always taking what he wanted. Why was it so surprising that Reo copied that behavior? Or was it more the fact that Taiga kept refusing every try of the leader to approach him while he seemed okay with Reo cornering him from time to time? Sure the way Reo approached him was way different than Domoto’s, but for the leader it was a feeling of losing against Reo and because the boy was also not more than his toy it was definitely making him feel the need to put him back into place.

When Taiga heard a yelp from the corridor he sat up and crawled over to the door, but as expected it was locked. The next thing that was heard was Domoto shouting something and even though Taiga felt like curling up on the ground and covering his ears he kept listening and while he couldn’t make out clear words he was sure that he could hear Reo’s voice in between the shouting and then the next sound was louder and it sounded as if someone had been thrown against a door.

Taiga took another deep breath before he dared to peak through the keyhole and found as he had expected Reo on the ground on the other side of the corridor with Domoto stepping out of his room. Before the boy could even sit up again the leader kicked him several times against the stomach making the boy curl up even more on the ground.

“STOP IT!” Taiga roared and punched the door furiously, but of course the other didn’t even react. When he couldn’t hear them clearly at the end of the corridor they couldn’t either, but on the other hand he was sure that he was shouting way louder than Domoto was.

Domoto lifted the boy up into a sitting position and shoved him against the wall with his hands in the boy’s collar. He said something to him, but of course Taiga couldn’t hear it, all he saw was Reo shaking his head and replying something on which Domoto looked at him skeptically before he tried to make Reo stand up, but the boy leant his weight to the back as the other one pulled on his arm.

There was another moment of shouting on that reaction before Domoto kicked the boy right into the face this time and started pulling him towards his room on the hair.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Taiga shouted once more, but then they both vanished out of his view as Domoto slammed Reo’s door shut behind them. “REO!”

With a furious scream Taiga kicked and punched the door a few times before he finally gave up and sank to the ground once more.

How had everything crumbled so easily again? Why did they always have to end up in the next big mess when things seemed okay for just once? With shaking legs Taiga got up slowly to get his clothes out of the bathroom. After all he couldn’t do anything else but wait for now and somehow he doubted that Domoto was coming back before the next morning and until then Taiga had to try to get his defenses up as good as possible. Who knew what would await him for the last day before the tournament now that they had made Domoto show his true colors once more?

***

“Sneaking around?”

Ueda turned around, feeling caught when Nikaido stood in the doorframe of the training room.

“This is my club, so not actually sneaking around I’d say.”

“But sneaking out of the med room, but I guess so early in the morning Miyata won’t show up and Abe and Kento are also still sleeping so for now you are safe,” Nikaido teased him as he walked inside the training room and closed the door.

“Is Kentaro also still asleep?”

“Yes and I hope he will be able to sleep as long as possible, today is the last day before the tournament and I want them all to take it easy today.”

“Understandable,” Ueda let out kind of absentminded as he stopped next to the ring and took a nostalgic look around the room. “So much happened since we established this club. We had some really rough times to face, lost precious friends on the way and were about to lose it all and then we saw so many unbelievable things happening on the other hand. Achieved unbelievable goals, found closer together with our friends and the people we love and made so many irreplaceable memories on our way until here.”

Nikaido nodded with a faint smile, knowing exactly how Ueda felt. They had faced every situation from hell to heaven and it was clear that nothing could make them give up easily, but this time their problems were bigger than ever before, the danger not just directed to one of them, but to the whole Underground.

“We will get him back, Ueda!” Nikaido said directly, knowing that this thought was actually what made Ueda feel restless now that they were so close to go to the Mugen hideout again.

“I am not sure if I can do this again,” Ueda let out to Nikaido’s surprise. “I can’t fight and even if I could I am not sure if I can be so close to him again while not being able to rescue him.”

“Don’t say that! Ueda, he needs you and you know that! What do you think Taiga will think when we show up there tomorrow without you? It’s not like we can just walk up to him and explain why you didn’t come. He will be worried.”

Of course Ueda understood that, but that didn’t make it any easier for him. With a sigh he carefully sat down at the side of the ring and Nikaido walked up to him, stopping in front of him.

“Even though you can’t fight in the tournament you can fight for him! Showing up is the first step of winning your own fight.”

Ueda let out a small chuckle on that before he faced the latter with a bitter smile. “How come that recently everyone has all those wise words prepared for every conversation?”

“Maybe we all learned from each other? Kentaro was the first one to finally say out loud what we all avoided to say. He showed us our lack of a bond. We were a fight club with strong members, but without any team spirit. He showed us our weaknesses. Reminded us of the need to see our members as a family.”

“One boy and everything changed, isn’t it amazing? You were finally able to leave your past behind, Taiga was able to fight his own dark past and I was able to finally face my own fears as well. And everything was always because Kentaro made sure that we would face all those things and that while he had his own past to deal with.”

“He knows that Aran will be present at the tournament as well and I can see that he is still extremely troubled by the whole situation and keeps beating himself for what has happened. It finally seems to be my turn to give him the support he gave me all this time.”

“As it is my time to support Taiga, even though I can just do it from afar,” Ueda replied with a little bit more confidence this time.

“Let’s show Avernus what we are made of!”

Ueda nodded on that and when Nikaido stretched out his arm towards him he stood up and put his hand in his, pulling their hands up between their faces.

“As if we let any weird freak ruin what we built! We will show him the strength of a bond!”


	16. Chapter 16

It was the exhaustion which had made Taiga fall asleep in the end more or less against his will, because he couldn’t deny that he couldn’t stop worrying. When morning arrived he almost jumped up when the door was opened with a loud sound and Domoto walked in, his face still a mask of rage. ”Get dressed!”

“What?”

“I told you to get dressed, now!”

Without daring to ask again what was going on Taiga stood up and got into the training clothes, because they were the closest to the bed. Right after he pulled his shirt over his head Domoto grabbed him roughly by the wrist and pulled him out of the room.

Taiga tried to make him slow down at Reo’s room, to be able to hear or see anything, but of course the door was closed and the leader gave him a warning glare over his shoulder as he realized the boy’s worry.

“Do I have to remind you again that Reo is not of your concern?” Domoto asked while tightening the grip on the boy’s wrists. Taiga lowered his eyes to the ground on that, but it didn’t seem enough for the leader and he stopped abruptly and shoved Taiga against the wall. The leader’s hand moved to the ring of the collar, lifting it up so much that it hurt Taiga’s neck a lot. “I asked you something! I want a clear answer!”

“No, you don’t have to remind me,” Taiga answered in the most neutral voice he could somehow bring out.

Once more Domoto kept dragging him along the corridor until they reached the stage where he released him out of his grip.

“Show me what you’ve learned!” Domoto ordered him out of a sudden while he opened the buttons on the sleeves of his silk shirt to pull them up.

“What I’ve learned?” Taiga asked in confusion, but slowly he understood what he meant as Domoto started circling around the boy and he didn’t like that at all. The leader taking care of his training? Especially the last training session before the tournament? The injuries he carried from the evening before were already bad enough for the upcoming tournament, especially because they would still be clearly visible to the others, but a real training? But on the other hand if it was the leader himself who would be at fault if he was unable to fight in the tournament then he couldn’t punish him for that, right?

Suddenly seeing this as an opportunity to let off some steam towards the right person this time without actually risking a punishment, Taiga started to move as well to Domoto’s obvious amusement. But that smile, that satisfaction showing on his face made Taiga’s blood boil once more and just one thought back towards the evening before and how he had treated Reo was enough to make him attack.

His moves weren’t reckless or wild attacks out of rage. This was his chance to show him that he wasn’t easily getting driven to a corner as before and he wanted to make sure that Domoto would understand that, so he was planning all of his moves carefully. As expected his first attacks got dodged easily and the leader kept foreseeing his moves, not even bothering with a real defense stance while moving fast and accurate away from the boy’s attacks.

“So you actually can fight serious when you have the right opponent,” Domoto teased him, but Taiga remained concentrated and tried one more attack this time with one of his spinning movements, but his round kick got blocked and he finally went on distance to catch his breath.

“Or the right reason to fight,” Taiga shot back on which Domoto’s look turned warning again, because he had of course understood the hint, but he had made his point clear that another punishment was awaiting him if he started talking about Reo again.

“How about the tournament? Do you have a reason to fight?”

No he hadn’t and Domoto knew that so why did he even bother to ask such a stupid question?

“Shall I give you one?”

“As long as you don’t tell me that I am allowed to go when we win, then I don’t think you will have any convincing reason,” Taiga replied before he stepped back as the leader started circling around him again.

“Let you go? To let you continue that pointless existence out there in the Underground?”

“Pointless? You don’t even know me, you know nothing!”

Driven by the rage of his own words Taiga jumped into the next attack, but this time Domoto didn’t just dodge, but blocked and countered, but Taiga wouldn’t let him turn the fight around that easily. He had fought with Nikaido and Ueda enough to at least cause stronger fighters some damage as well.

He made sure that Domoto wouldn’t land a direct hit on him while he kept trying to break through his defense and he almost succeeded, but then he didn’t pull back his arm in time as Domoto countered and grabbed his arm, pulling it on his back and lifting it up with such a force that Taiga escaped a pained yelp as Domoto kept him with his back against his chest while moving his free hand under the boy’s chin to make him turn towards him as much as possible.

“I told you before that I am good in seeing what people are capable of and what not. I know more than you think.”

“Then you should also know that your games will never make me surrender the way you want it,” Taiga hissed at him and to his surprise he got released the next moment and was pushed away.

“Then maybe this time I should use a more direct method? Something clearer?”

Even if that meant he wanted to break him through direct force this time it couldn’t scare Taiga anymore, but somehow he sensed that this wasn’t the case.

“You fight serious and the tournament will end without any trouble. Okay more or less, because I can’t promise that all the fights will end without problems, that depends on the fighters, but I will make sure that whichever sides loses will still get a fair chance to retreat, after all it is a tournament and no street fight, right?”

“And what if I don’t fight serious?”

The question made Domoto’s look turn entertained before he suddenly dashed forward, way faster than before and while Taiga had been able to at least somehow block his attacks he was completely outpaced this time and had no chance to even react as the latter gave him a harsh blow to the stomach first before he grabbed him on the shirt and threw him to the ground crouching down over him.

Taiga needed a moment to get his orientation back and fill his lunges with air again after the sudden attack. So it was clear that Domoto was definitely no easy opponent with the way he was able to hide his true strength, but attack that precisely on the spot if needed.

With his next move he grabbed the ring on the collar and pulled Taiga closer to his face while still keeping his entertained smile.

“If I have the feeling you lose on purpose to help your friends win I make sure none of them will make it out alive the hideout after the tournament.”

“You can’t do that! You just said yourself that it’s an official tournament!” Taiga shot back at him while trying to not raise his voice too much. Yelling wouldn’t help him against Domoto he had figured that out long enough already.

With a chuckle Domoto got up again and released the boy which sat up and kept glaring at the other one.

“You want to try me? You said I know nothing, right? Then maybe you are right? Then go on and don’t fight! Lose your fight on purpose if you get chosen and see who of us knows the other one better, because maybe you are the one who doesn’t know me well enough? It’s your choice! I gave you this one warning, you have to decide for yourself what your answer will be.”

With that the leader just vanished from the stage, leaving the boy behind with a perplex expression. Of course he wasn’t alone, other members were waiting to escort him back to his room, but just for a moment longer he remained on the ground trying to get his thoughts back into order.

No of course he didn’t doubt the leader’s words, not even a second had he doubted that he would actually make his warning come true and kill everyone, but the reason behind it made it hard for him to not fall back into the black hole he had found himself in so often already until now. Why was he always going so far just to make Taiga follow his orders? Was he wrong after all? Maybe Domoto actually knew more about him than he wanted to admit, because he was definitely a master of finding ways to drive people into the next corner without using direct force, not that he hadn’t run out of patience often enough by now.

He had one more day, but would time really matter? It wasn’t like he had any choice after that threat.

***

“Are you sure we are not provoking them too much with this?” Kentaro asked worried as they arrived in front of the Mugen hideout. But they weren’t alone. From their club everyone had come, also those who didn’t fight in the tournament. No one had even tried to stop Fuma, Kento and Sou from joining, the same of course with Ueda, Abe and Shintaro. No one wanted to be left out and even though they couldn’t support them directly they would be there to fight if necessary, which was unfortunately something that could possibly happen if they lost the tournament. But what could bring the biggest uproar was the rest of the Titanium Triangle gathering with almost full members around the hideout. It was a weird picture having Kamenashi come with all his members in their typical suits, while Kitayama came with his chaotic, but still fearless and brave troop. Since he had taken over the Fire Foxes the troop had changed a lot and they were determined to fight for the Underground as well.

“We are all one family, remember? As if we could just stay back and let you handle things all by yourself,” Kamenashi tried to calm him down with an encouraging smile.

“And it’s not like we are all entering the hideout. The Titanium Triangle members will wait outside with Kamenashi,” Kitayama added while a few of his men were next to him taking a hold on Kochi and Juri which they had taken with them. They had given them a last chance in the morning to change their minds, but both had stood silent and so they had no other choice, but hand them back to Domoto.

“Are you sure you want to enter?” Abe asked Shintaro which looked a little bit taken aback by the huge theater in front of him, but as soon as the question was posted he already nodded.

“There is no way I am going to run now that I am at fault in the first place for dragging you in this mess.”

On that Watanabe and Miyadate hit him at the same time against the back of his head on which Abe laughed and Shintaro flinched.

“Idiot, as if you are at fault for anything,” Watanabe scolded him right away on which Miyadate nodded.

“It is thanks to you that we were even able to come this far and that those two were able to track Mugen down with the support of Ueda and Taiga. That Taiga got taken away from you guys in the middle wasn’t your fault,” Miyadate confirmed Watanabe’s words.

Shintaro still seemed to feel kind of uneasy about the whole situation, but for now he just nodded and turned back to the hideout as Nikaido and Ueda started moving with the others following them.

First they wanted Nakai to lead the tournament from their side, but after Nikaido and Ueda had been the ones to accept the challenge he had decided that it was better for them to handle it alone. He had actually succeeded in gathering the other fight clubs as back up.

“Shouldn’t you wait outside with the Triangle?” Kentaro addressed Fukka and Myuto which had made such a huge ruckus to be allowed to come with them that no one was in the mood anymore in the end to stop them.

“If this escalates I’ll be the first one to kick Domoto’s ass!” Myuto let out, but while his eyes were shining with pure hatred against the man after the attack on their fight club, his body would still not be able to follow that wish. Fukka wouldn’t leave his side to make sure that he was really okay, but for now Fuma and Ueda had to be watched closer than him, which was why Kento and Sou were not leaving Fuma’s side and Tegoshi and Nikaido made sure that Ueda was fine.

As expected they didn’t find just Mugen and the competing members of the Dancing Rascals and the Storm Warriors inside the theater, but a lot more of their members, but at least it didn’t seem like they felt threatened by the arrival of so many members on their side. All members of Avernus were gathered on the right side of the stage and with the middle of the stage obviously supposed to be the ring for their fight they moved over to the other side right away.

“Don’t stop like that Kentaro!” Fukka scolded him as he made him almost stumble on the stairs as he stopped abruptly, but his focus was somewhere completely different. While he wasn’t surprised to find Taiga and Reo next to Domoto and also the leaders and members of the last meeting he had frozen to the spot when he had spotted Aran and Hagiya next to Takizawa. But what had he expected? Of course at least Aran would be present and definitely be part of the tournament! What had made him stop though was the look he received from the other one. Aran didn’t even seem to feel caught and kept staring while Kentaro tried to figure out what kind of emotion it was which he showed him, but it was hard to figure out and the next moment Hagiya said something to him on which he finally looked away.

“Kentaro what is it?” Myuto asked worried as Kentaro still didn’t move, but the boy just shook his head before he kept moving and stepped next to the others on stage. He had realized that the others had tensed as well, Ueda and Taiga exchanging an almost desperate look, before Taiga’s look traveled to Watanabe and Abe first with a small hint of a smile. Of course he didn’t know Miyadate, which made him almost move his eyes back towards Ueda before he spotted Shintaro next to him and his eyes grew wide first before relief took over his expression. The younger one had tensed immediately when Taiga had looked at him, but Abe walked up to him immediately and squeezed his shoulder.

“Does that look like he would judge you for anything that happened?” Abe asked in a low voice and Shintaro felt like he seriously had to try to keep it together otherwise he would make things even worse. It wasn’t the time for a breakdown, but he was so relieved to see Taiga safe and still so worried to see him with the collar and all the bruises.

“Mh, some members you brought today a really surprising me,” Domoto let out his eyes landing directly on Shintaro on which Miyadate and also Watanabe stepped in front of the boy immediately. But Domoto just smiled before his eyes landed on Reo for a brief moment, but the boy tried to ignore the warning glare he received. “By the way would you be so nice and return my two precious fighters to me?”

On that Nikaido nodded at Kitayama who ordered his men to free Juri and Kochi. While Kochi walked over to them without any hesitation and moved behind Aran and Hagiya right away, Juri spent a short side glance at Kento who looked back at him with a worried expression. Domoto looked at both of them with a way too happy expression, after all they had failed their mission and it was clear that however the tournament was about to end they wouldn’t get off that easily.

“Ueda, I warn you don’t even dare to make that step!” Nikaido hissed from the side on which he received a death glare from Ueda.

“I didn’t even move!”

“But you were about to! I saw the new bruises as well, but it’s not the time to freak about that now. You stay back for the tournament, whatever happens! Am I clear?”

Normally Ueda would feel offended by the way Nikaido dared to speak to him, but at the moment he had all right to scold him so he just retreated a little bit to stand in the back. The names of the participating members had to be put in a bucket at the back of the stage and that was what Nikaido did as Reo also did the same and for a brief moment both of them kept staring at each other before Reo formed a bright smile.

“Let’s have a fair tournament,” the boy let out on which Nikaido just kept staring at him for a while. It was way too hard to read the boy so Nikaido didn’t even bother with analyzing him.

“As long as you fight fair, we will as well,” Nikaido let out warningly before they both moved back to their sides of the stage.

It was when they finally started relaxing a little bit that they paid more attention to all the people which had gathered which made Sou tense a little bit as he spotted Ren next to Sakurai and Yamashita and the shiver which went through his body wasn’t missed by Kento and he pulled the boy a little bit to the back.

“Don’t worry, they can’t do you any harm as long as we are with you,” he comforted the boy, but he couldn’t deny that he also felt extremely uncomfortable to be in the same room with all those people again which had thrown their lives back into a huge chaos.

Nikaido spoke with Daiki, Hikaru and the other North Tokyo Fight club members which had joined them for the fight while the others also retreated a little bit as Domoto also spent his members more attention for a while.

“What is he doing?” Watanabe asked suddenly on which Abe followed his look and landed his eyes on Taiga next. The boy was staring back at the two with a weird expression before he moved his head to the left.

Abe tilted his head not understanding what he meant on which Taiga took a careful look around, but most of the others were busy talking and Domoto also didn’t spend him any attention. This time he also moved his hand, pointing towards the seats in front of the stage were a lot of Avernus members were gathered.

“What does he want us to look at?” Watanabe asked confused on which Abe shrugged his shoulders, but nodded at Taiga that he had understood that whatever he wanted to show them was at that direction.

Taiga turned away after that to not get scolded by anyone, but of course Reo had seen what he was doing not that it would matter, because the boy just ignored it.

“Ow, damn it Abe, what was that for!” Watanabe scolded him harshly as Abe grabbed him by the arm, digging his fingers into his skin with a way too tight grip. “What are-”

“Saku!” Abe let out almost in a whisper, as if he couldn’t believe in his own words.

“What?”

“Look! It’s Saku! He is okay, oh my god he is really okay!” Abe let out in relief, almost hysteric as he tried to make Watanabe find him in the crowd without being too obvious and when his grip got suddenly returned he knew that Watanabe had spotted him.

“Saku….”

The one in question had stared back at them from the start and now there was a faint smile on his lips, showing them that he was more than relieved to see that they were okay.

All they could do for now was also replying with their eyes, but it seemed to be enough to make both sides understand how happy and relieved they were.

“We will win this tournament!” Watanabe let out in determination on which Abe looked at him with a bright smile.

“Yes we will, for sure!” Miyadate added as he stepped next to them. He didn’t need to ask what had happened, because the looks he received told him already that they had found their friend.


	17. Chapter 17

“I am extremely sorry for my late greeting,” Domoto was heard from the other side of the stage as he stepped forward and put his hands together in front of him with an entertained expression towards the fight club members. “I am happy to see that you have gathered for this tournament in such a high number, I hope you will enjoy the fights and are as excited as we are about the results.”

“I can show him how excited I am without waiting for the results,” Tegoshi hissed in a low voice on which he got a warning side glance from Nikaido.

“You can select the person which draws the first name from your side from all members, competing or not. That person can draw both names or let the person which he drew first draw his opponent.”

With that announcement Domoto stepped back, leaving the stage free for someone to step forward, but first everyone hesitated. It wasn’t like they were worried for any kind of trap, at least not until the tournament was over, but of course they were tense because of the possible opponents they could get. They had no idea who they had chosen after all, except for Juri and Kochi which could after all be a lie, because if they wouldn’t get drawn it still wouldn’t prove that their names were really inside the bucket.

“I am going to draw first if you are all okay with that?” Nikaido asked and slowly everyone nodded, Nikaido’s look wandering towards Kentaro for a short moment. Not even once had the older one feared so much that Kentaro would have to participate in a tournament. Every time Nakai had announced him for a big tournament or a complicated opponent he was worried, but this time it was way different and when he reached inside the bucket and draw one of the papers out his heart was hammering like crazy. Sure it wasn’t the only fight, but he didn’t want to be the one to send Kentaro in this cruel tournament. When he unfolded the paper he had to watch out not to let out a sigh in relief, after all it wasn’t fair to feel relaxed to send someone else into the fight.

“Kitayama,” Nikaido announced on which the latter stepped forward right away.

“Draw the second name,” Kitayama said and Nikaido nodded, reaching inside the other bucket, but this time he froze for a moment when he unfolded the paper which made the others tense immediately.

“Who is it?” Kitayama asked in a calm voice. He had gotten all the information about the other fighters, as had the other members which hadn’t met any Avernus members until now. Sou had told them as much as he knew about Yamashita and Ren, while Shintaro had told them about Domoto, Reo and other strong Mugen members and Tegoshi had told them everything about the Dancing Rascals, the hate in his voice obvious to everyone while he was explaining, especially when he was talking about Junta who was present as well of course.

“It’s Aran.”

That announcement made Kentaro stop breathing and he felt more than nauseous all of a sudden, but everyone else was spending Aran attention instead as the boy also stepped to the front. While everyone on the fight club side had tensed on his name the boy seemed to feel relieved and Kentaro knew why. After all they could have ended up fighting against each other and that was something Kentaro couldn’t have done. Not after still not having the chance to talk things out between them. There were still too many questions, too many things unspoken and feelings hurting both of them.

When Nikaido walked back to them as Aran and Kitayama went towards the middle of the stage he put his arm around Kentaro’s shoulder immediately.

“You don’t have to watch the fight if it is too much for you,” he whispered, but the boy shook his head right away. But he couldn’t deny that it was already hard to see him on the wrong side, as their opponent! One of the persons they had to defeat to protect their family.

“I am sorry…” Kentaro let out in a low voice on which Nikaido squeezed his shoulder.

“Kentaro, you know that I understand your feelings towards him. I know that there are things which stop you from seeing him as a bad person and to be honest I doubt he is one of those which we can’t rescue.”

His words confused the boy for a moment before he looked up at the older one with a questioning, still hoping expression. Had he heard right? Nikaido wasn’t just forgiving him for all the heavy mistakes they had done, but also tried to help him to rescue the one person which had almost destroyed everything they had built together?

“I know we all make mistakes and mine were heavy, but whatever made him choose this way in the first place I doubt I will be able to hate him...I- I can’t hate him. He was...he is too precious to me...I am sorry,” Kentaro stuttered, after all he wanted Nikaido to understand and to know about his feelings to not build up any new walls between them and Nikaido seemed to understand as he pulled him a little bit closer.

“We don’t leave our family members behind, right? We are not just here to rescue Taiga.”

It felt so unreal to hear all those supporting words, to feel the truth in them, because Nikaido would never make things up to make him feel better. He really meant what he said and he would try to safe Aran as well if possible, but Kentaro knew that if they wanted to succeed he had to be the one to pull Aran out of this, if they boy wanted someone to help him!

“As you can see the stage is going to be your ring, but even if you get thrown off it that doesn’t count as a loss. The fight can be won through a knock out, the opponent not being able to fight back anymore or the fighter throwing in the towel,” Domoto explained so that everyone’s attention was back on Kitayama and Aran as they both waited in the middle for Domoto’s signal. With a lopsided smile the one in question waved his hand. “Let the first fight begin.”

Kitayama had gotten a lot of information about Aran’s fighting style so he was going on distance right away, trying to make a plan on how he could break through the boy’s defense without getting some serious hits right in the beginning. After all this was a fight way more important than at a normal tournament. If he lost then there were bigger consequences than just some loss of prestige for a fight club!

“It doesn’t matter if you wait or not, I will win this fight anyway,” Aran let out confident, but Kitayama didn’t even react to his try to provoke him. After a few more tense moments of a heavy silence in the whole theater Kitayama finally dared to jump into the first attack. He attacked with fast and accurate punches, which he pulled back as fast as possible so that Aran had not enough time to focus on any spots to attack and after Aran seemed to be faster at first sight Kitayama definitely had the better stamina, because when Aran tried to back off Kitayama just kept attacking until Aran wasn’t fast enough to dodge one of Kitayama’s attacks, which had been a kick this time and came with such a force that Aran got taken off his feet by it. But they had reached the other side of the stage already and instead of landing on the ground Aran landed right between his own members.

“Having problems?” Hagiya teased him after catching him at the last moment, but Aran pushed himself away from him right away and dashed forward with a curse. Kitayama tried to stay focused and even though he was the one backing off this time he countered instead of dodging, knowing that he could get the upper hand through his strong and continuing attacks.

When Aran got a direct hit to the face it was Kentaro who flinched next to them, but no one could blame him. It wasn’t like they would lose against Aran to do Kentaro a favor, but they could understand how hard it was to see him fight against them. After all there were also Juri and Kochi which could be their next opponents and that would be hard for all of them and they could just wish that their opponents would be Watanabe or Miyadate if they got chosen.

After a second punch went through Aran’s defense, Kitayama grabbed the boy by the wrists, making sure that he couldn’t use his special technique. Aran tried to kick him away, but Kitayama stopped his attack with his knee before he pulled the boy closer on which he received a dangerous growl.

“What? Don’t tell me that you thought this fight would be easy?” Kitayama mocked him on which the boy tried again to free himself, but in matters of strength he was completely inferior in this fight. “Do I see hesitation there?”

The question took the boy by surprise and he stopped struggling for a moment. The others hadn’t heard the question, but they saw the sudden confusion on Aran’s face and everyone noticed the brief look over Kitayama’s shoulder towards Kentaro.

But as fast as the boy had frozen he started struggling again, this time succeeding in freeing himself, but he went on distance right away, his breathing pace suddenly turning faster and his focus seemed to be affected all through Kitayama’s words.

“Let me do you a favor and end this fast,” Kitayama said before he dashed forward, this time succeeding even faster in getting the upper hand, but he was still watching out to withdraw every attack as fast as possible. One wrong move could cost him the mobility of an arm or leg!

Once more Kitayama succeeded in making Aran back off and the boy got easily out of balance while he tried to somehow get out of reach to get a break, but Kitayama wouldn’t allow that of course. The next time he brought Aran to fall was through a strong right hook on which Aran fell to the back, landing on his stomach with a groan after twisting around at the last moment.

No one had caught him this time, but he had landed in front of someone and that person crouched down to him the next moment on which Aran got up on his elbows and looked up, finding no other than Domoto in front of him, a gentle smile on his lips when he reached out to brush with his fingers over the boy’s cheek.

“Aran, you remember why I allowed you to join Avernus?”

The boy nodded immediately, but still didn’t dare to get up again.

“Then you should show me that reason again, because what I am seeing right now is not worth our name.”

There were two stings for Kentaro in just two sentences. Aran had joined Mugen on his own that was clear now. It was something Kentaro didn’t want to believe from the start, but here he had gotten the proof, which made something inside of him break even more if there was even anything left to break. The second sting came from the direct threat, because it was clear what he meant and while all the other Avernus members seemed to approve, Taiga’s look darkened and he turned towards Reo, but the boy tried to ignore him, his mask almost as perfect as when Taiga wasn’t around him, but just almost!

Aran needed a moment longer to make his body move again, but when he was up on his feet he bowed towards Domoto before he turned towards Kitayama with an empty stare. It was needed to make him focus on the fight and nothing else, but there was no way Kentaro could get angry at him for that, after all his life was depending on the outcome of this tournament as well. None of them had believed from the beginning that Domoto would just forgive his fighters if they lost a fight, but that didn’t mean that they would go easy on them, even if it was Aran. At least it was Kitayama who was fighting him and he didn’t seem to get affected at all by the conversation, even though he had been with Kentaro after what had happened between the boys before, but the responsibility of protecting the Titanium Triangle made him focused enough to concentrate on nothing else but the outcome of the fight. Unfortunately Aran had switched into the same state now and when the boy dashed forward the fight turned even. Both of them dodging and blocking, dashing forward and backing off the same. There were no long breaks of waiting or planning, just fast and accurate attacks.

Which eventually led to Kitayama losing his focus at the worst timing and Aran used that one weak moment right away. Kitayama tried to pull back as fast as possible, but he was already too late and two accurate hits landed on his lower arm and he pulled it back with a hiss. He could still feel his shoulder, but nothing from his elbow down, which made punches with his right arm impossible from now on. But he had no time to concentrate on his sudden disadvantage as Aran seemed to speed up even more and with one arm less it was hard for Kitayama to keep concentrating on attacks and he started to dodge more which ended with him being the one this time getting pushed towards the other side of the stage, but Aran backed off before he could end up stumbling on his own members.

“Did he get your arm?” Hikaru asked worried from the back and Kitayama just nodded towards the side on which Hikaru let out a curse behind him.

“It still doesn’t decide anything, right? If you get hurt in a tournament through a normal attack you also can’t move without problems anymore,” Daiki concluded, trying to give them hope that they could turn the fight around.

“His...Aran’s right side is weaker,” Kentaro let out almost in a whisper, but Kitayama still heard him, but he didn’t dare to turn towards him, instead he nodded again and stepped forward again.

“You didn’t tell us that until now,” Tegoshi let out almost scolding on which Ueda and Nikaido both gave him a warning look, even though they knew that he had every right to be angry. Each information could help them, even the smallest one.

“I know it’s hard, but it was a brave decision to let him know,” Nikaido said in a neutral voice, while keeping his eyes on the fight as Kitayama tried to get the upper hand again.

“And why does it feel like I keep betraying him?”

It wasn’t something that could be easily answered and Nikaido didn’t even try to find a fitting reply for that, instead he pulled the boy closer again.

He closed his eyes when Kitayama succeeded in breaking through Aran’s defense once more and sent him to the ground. When Kitayama kept attacking while the boy was on the ground Kentaro kept his eyes closed, Aran’s pained noises each time he received another blow was enough for him already and he moved his hands up to his ears, trying to shut those sounds out as well. But then there was a curse this time from Kitayama and Kentaro flung his eyes open right in time to see how Aran had succeeded in getting a grip on the latter’s leg.

“Let go!” Kitayama yelled at him and tried to get a grip on the boy’s wrists before he could do any harm, but he wasn’t fast enough and Aran used his technique on Kitayama’s leg as well. At the same moment he hit his leg the older one tried to avoid any bigger damage and let himself fall to the ground and kicked the boy direct into the face with his other leg on which Aran let out a pained yelp and pulled back, rolling to the side.

It would have been the perfect opportunity for Kitayama to keep attacking, but even though he had avoided more hits his leg had turned numb already and he had problems getting up.

It took most of them by surprise when Aran screamed out and jumped up the next moment, jumping forward and shoving Kitayama back to the ground after he had barely made it back into a standing position. The boy’s look was a mask of rage out of a sudden and he started attacking the other one with random punches, while the older one tried to get a grip on his arms once more to make sure to reduce the damage.

“Getting desperate?” Kitayama yelled at him, trying to make the boy even more furious so that he would lose his focus for good. But to his surprise his attacks got more precisely instead of sloppy and suddenly he broke through his defense and brought down one of his special attacks on his chest which confused the latter for a brief moment, because first it didn’t hurt and he couldn’t find the boy’s intentions.

“I am not losing after everything I sacrificed to come this far,” the boy hissed again before he succeeded in bringing down another attack and this time Kitayama breathed in sharp a sudden pain filling his chest and he tried to turn to the side, but before he was able to push the boy off him the pain grew bigger, so fast and so sharp that there was a pained noise coming out with the next breath.

“What is going on? What is happening to him?” Watanabe asked in shock as Kitayama’s expression turned more and more suffering, while he tried desperately to stop Aran from another attack, but the boy’s eyes were shining with such a determination that it was just a matter of time for him to get the upper hand completely.

“Don’t…”

“What?” Nikaido addressed Kentaro as the boy kept whispering something, which he couldn’t understand, but the boy’s expression had suddenly turned to panicked and everyone’s eyes landed on him as they realized how pale he had turned.

“Kentaro, when you know what is going on then tell us,” Fuma interfered this time, but before Kentaro could spend them any attention Aran let out another furious scream the moment he was about to bring down another attack, but  that was something Kentaro couldn’t let happen.

“ARAN, STOP!”

Kentaro’s sudden shouting had made a lot of their members flinch, but soon all eyes were on Aran who had stopped with his hand just inches away from Kitayama’s chest. The latter had serious problems to even keep breathing by now and was obviously thankful for the sudden interference.

“Aran, you promised not to use this technique anymore! Please Aran...please don’t…” Kentaro needed to try hard to keep his voice steady, especially because of the broken expression he got from the boy in return. He had tried so desperately to win the fight that he had switched into a state which Kentaro knew way too well. The day Aran got the scar on his cheek had been one of those days he had went into something like a overviolent mode, but while it normally ended pretty fast he also lost control completely sometimes and the attack he was using on Kitayama was something Kentaro had seen just once and it had ended with a huge fight between them.

“Aran, you promised….”

It took a few moments longer for Aran to finally move again, but instead of attacking again he got up and turned towards his own members, walking over to them to Domoto’s obvious surprise.

“Throwing in the towel?” The leader asked in amusement, but also with an obvious threat hidden behind this caring expression.

“He can’t get up anymore. The fight is over,” Aran let out before bowing to the leader and walking over to Hagiya who looked at him kind of impressed. But instead of letting Aran just stand there with all his injuries Ren pulled him to the back to treat him and when he was out of sight Kentaro finally realized how tense he had turned and he finally dared to take another deep breath, but it got interrupted the moment he felt Domoto’s eyes on him, questioning and way too interested in what had just happened.

“Then the first win goes to Avernus I'd say,” Domoto let out almost in an apologizing way before he moved his hand towards Katayama who had turned on the side still trying to suppress some pained noises, but he failed miserably.

“Please feel free to take care of your fighter and let us know when you are ready for the next fight. Taiga will draw the next fighters.”

First Daiki and Hikaru had made a step forward right away to get their leader, but on the announcement of Taiga drawing the next fighters they halted for a brief moment, all eyes on Taiga now with a startled expression.

“He is just drawing a name, calm down,” Nikaido let out warningly as everyone around him tensed. He signaled Hikaru and Daiki to get Katayama, but instead of lifting him up from the ground they had to drag him back to their side of the stage as his body wasn't able to get up even with support.

“Sorry…” he let out in a low voice and a pretty beaten expression as they put him carefully into a sitting position against the wall.

“Don't apologize you idiot. You volunteered to risk your life in this tournament for us, there is no way we would get mad just because you lost,” Ueda calmed him down, even though it was clear that he felt bitter about their first fight being a loss.

“Not to forget that your opponent was Aran, he is pretty dangerous, right?” Abe added on which the others nodded.

“Maybe he wouldn't have been that dangerous if we had known all his tricks and not just half of it,” Tegoshi let out, not even trying to hide the accusation and Kentaro’s look darkened immediately.

“Kentaro, what was that attack?” Miyadate asked and the boy looked at Kitayama with an apologizing expression.

“It's his most dangerous attack, but he- he had promised me he wouldn't use it anymore. I'm sorry, I didn't think he would use it…”

“I know that you were friends back then or even more than friends to be more direct, but you can't endanger our win just because you want to believe in him!” Ueda scolded him this time and even though he tried not to sound as scolding as Tegoshi it was clear that he was also disappointed in Kentaro.

“I'm sorry, I really am. Katayama if I had known he would go that far...I didn't want you to get hurt that badly.”

“Hey, it's okay. You got enough scolding already. But could you tell me what he did? Because I can't deny that it seriously hurts, “ Kitayama explained while he tried to sit up a little bit more, but gave up right away on the way his upper body was complaining about the movement. His arm and leg would also stay numb for some time, but there was at least no pain involved in that injury.

“He attacked your heart.”

“Pardon?”

“It's not as easy as with the other muscles of the body, but the heart is a muscle as well and he tried to use the same attack on it.”

“Wait, does that mean…” Myuto let out in shock as he realized what could have happened when Kentaro wouldn't have been able to stop him.

“What does it mean?” Fukka asked still a little bit confused.

“He could have killed him with the next attack, that's what it means,” Shintaro let out.

 “They seriously have the most dangerous fighters gathered here,” Watanabe hissed while punching the wall with the side of his hand.

“We can be really happy then that the boy's feelings for you are still bigger than his oath to Avernus.”

“Eh?” Kentaro blinked at Kitayama in confusion on that statement, but he was right, wasn't he? Carefully he looked up at Nikaido, clearly afraid of the latter being offended by what Kitayama had just said, but his look was neutral and concentrated, as they all should be at the moment.

“We will have an eye on him,” Fukka let out, pointing at Myuto who nodded.

“It could be that Daiki and Hikaru might have to fight, right? So don't worry we will make sure that Kitayama is okay,” Myuto added with a brief encouraging smile.

“Idiots, he didn't kill me so I won't die now either!” Kitayama scolded them, hitting Fukka against the knee with such a force that the latter let out a yelp and jumped back on one foot, hiding behind Myuto.

“Okay fine, we'll observe you from a safe distance then,” he added, pushing Myuto to the front.

“You mean you do that while I have to get hit next? Coward!” Myuto scolded him.

“Kick their asses in the next round,” Kitayama addressed the others which nodded.

“I'd kick all of them if I could,” Fuma interfered.

“Then let's be happy that you can't or there would be no fun left for us,” Daiki let out teasingly.

 


	18. Chapter 18

“Whoever gets chosen so please stay focused? The first fight showed us already how dangerous and unpredictable they can be,” Kento added before stepping a little bit to the back together with Sou, also wanting to keep an eye on Kitayama.

“We definitely won't go down easily,” Nikaido let out on which everyone nodded and turned back to the stage where Domoto already waited with his usual entertained smile.

“So I guess we can continue. Taiga would you do us the favor and announce the next fighters?”

Right, the favor. But Taiga had learned not to get easily annoyed by the latter's choice of words anymore and walked over to the buckets. He gave Ueda a worried side glance, but didn't dare to hold eye contact for long. The situation was tense enough already they shouldn’t add fuel to the fire.

First he reached inside the bucket of the Avernus fighters, hoping that he could announce an easy opponent if there even was one, but he froze on the spot as he read the name on the paper.

“And who is the lucky one?” Domoto asked interested while observing how Taiga's expression changed to worried as he looked up again.

“Reo,” Taiga let out in a shaky voice.

“Great, now this is going to become a massacre,” Watanabe hissed.

But for Taiga that wasn't actually why he had reacted as he did. Sure Reo was dangerous and he would definitely fight serious, but was he really alright? After what happened before with Domoto Taiga had had no chance to speak with the boy in private and just by looking it was hard to tell if Reo’s condition was good enough to fight.

“What a lucky draw, thank you Taiga,” Domoto congratulated him on which the boy had to fight the urge to roll his eyes.

“Then let's see who his opponent will be.” Of course he wouldn't give Reo the chance to draw, after all he enjoyed it way too much to see Taiga’s expression while drawing the next name.

When he unfolded the paper he cursed himself for feeling relieved. He shouldn't feel like that no matter the fighter. Sure if it was Kentaro or Tegoshi he would have feared the most that they couldn't win, but the fighter he drew had enough rage bottled up against Avernus to attack the whole group on his own. If he could really win though was another question.

Taiga turned towards his friends with an almost apologizing expression before he announced the name. “Watanabe.”

“Great, so it's a massacre I can be at fault for,” Watanabe said without any kind of hesitation or fear in his voice, but when he wanted to step forward Abe grabbed him by the sleeve.

“Please Shota, don't do anything stupid! I know how important this tournament is, but I can't lose you as well.”

Watanabe turned towards him and put his hands on his shoulders before he gave him an encouraging smile.

“Why as well? Saku is over there, right? Now that we are all together again I won't let us get separated that easily.”

“But I know how big the grudge is you hold against Reo, because I feel the same. Please don't lose your focus because of that.”

Watanabe stepped back with a chuckle which obviously confused Abe as he tilted his head, but then Watanabe faced Miyadate and the latter gave him a knowing look.

“Don't worry, someone taught me recently to focus on the important things.”

Abe looked at Miyadate and back to his friend with a more relaxed expression, but Shintaro remained tense next to them.

“Anything you can tell me that will help?” Watanabe addresses the boy, but he shook his head.

“I told you everything at the training already and as I said I unfortunately don't know so much about his fighting style or strength,” Shintaro let out apologizing on which the older one shrugged his shoulders.

“Doesn't matter, I won't go down easily.”

“Hopefully you won't go down at all,” Miyadate added in a serious tone and for a moment both kept staring at each other before Watanabe approached him with two big steps and pulled him harshly with his hand at the back of his head into a short and rough kiss. Miyadate reacted immediately and greedy, but pulled back to push the latter towards the stage.

“You get more after you kicked his ass.”

“That's a way to motivate someone,” Fuma added in amusement.

“As if it wouldn't work for you as well!” Fukka scolded him.

“Didn't say it wouldn't, but today we won't find out.”

“But with Watanabe fighting we have a good substitute for you I think. He seems as explosive and stubborn as you are,” Myuto added teasing.

“Then it would be interesting if we could have a fight against each other after we are out of all this,” Fuma added with a lot of excitement, but to his surprise it was Sou who hit him from the side and moved his head towards Kento’s direction. The latter’s look had darkened and Fuma needed a moment to realize that it was his fault. He made a step towards Kento and pulled him closer, pressing a kiss on his hair.

“I'm just saying it would have been interesting. It's not like I'm planning on going back.”

“I know, don't worry.”

It didn't sound too convincing, but Kento was pulling back and crouched down next to Kitayama to take a look at his condition again, while the others focused on Watanabe as he stepped in the middle of the stage. His look went over to Saku for just a brief moment, but it was long enough to see the latter's encouraging look and it gave him even more strength to take on this fight.

“Are you planning on making me exhausted through waiting?” Watanabe let out as Reo had still not walked up to him.

Taiga walked slowly back to them and stopped next to Reo with a worried expression.

“Will you be alright? ...I mean, you know-”

“It's nothing, I'll be alright,” Reo replied right away as he realized what Taiga meant, but the boy didn't seem convinced.

Instead of saying something Domoto snapped his fingers and it made Taiga flinch a little bit, because he feared to have been heard, but Reo just turned away from him and walked up to Domoto. As Aran he bowed towards him, but the leader stood up and approached him before he let him turn around. With a gentle touch he put his hand on the boy’s face and gave him a faint smile.

“Don't disappoint me.”

“Wow, he is so encouraging,” Myuto let out annoyed and rolled his eyes.

“Don't underestimate the strength of Domoto’s threats,” Shintaro warned them on which they all tensed again.

“I bet Reo fights way better through fear than through encouragement in his state,” Ueda let out.

“In his state?” Tegoshi let out kind of scolding. “As if he could be in any other condition! He is a freak like Domoto!”

“Don't be too fast with that judgement,” Nikaido interfered. “I've seen what he's done for Taiga! The way he lied Domoto in the face about the hits he had gotten from us.”

That made Tegoshi fall silent again after all they couldn't deny that they had been impressed by that after Nikaido had reported to them about the meeting.

“But as Shintaro said I'm afraid of what the boy can do when Domoto is around,” Kentaro added worried.

When Reo nodded and Domoto stepped back everyone concentrated back on their fight which was definitely not going to end without serious injuries.

“Hope you are ready to get your payback,” Watanabe let out threatening, but Reo wore his perfect mask. “Let's see if it is really just Taiga who can break that mask.”

Instead of a reply Reo started his first attack and the speed with which he threw his first punch at Watanabe made the others gasp. But what had they expected? A few of them had seen him fight already, others have heard about it. Reo was dangerous and he proved that right away. There was no hesitation in his movements. He wasn't carefully trying to find his opponent's weak points, but to destroy him before he could even get attacked.

Abe flinched as it didn't take more than three fast and accurate attacks from Reo to make Watanabe lose his balance and with Reo’s next attack, a smooth foot sweep Watanabe was down. There was no break between the attacks and Reo jumped on him right away, two straight punches landing on his face before Watanabe could even get his defense up. With a curse the boy tried to avoid as many attacks as possible, but he couldn't find any opening to even think about any counter.

“SHOTA,” Abe called out for him even though he knew that he couldn't help.

“Come on idiot, get up,” Miyadate shouted next and soon after that there was a loud curse heard from Watanabe and he blocked Reo’s next attack. But instead of trying to attack he pulled the boy down and closed his arms around his upper body so that he was unable to free his arms. When he did the same with his legs Reo started struggling with all his might and succeeded to twist around a little bit, but still couldn't free himself. Watanabe kept holding him with his back against his chest, but moved one arm up to his neck, adding as much pressure on it as he could. After all he wouldn't be able to stop Reo from moving for long with just one arm and soon Reo freed one arm and hit his elbow up against Watanabe’s head. On that move Watanabe released his other arm as well just to be able to add more pressure on his neck as he moved his other hand to the boy’s head to make sure that he couldn't twist away while struggling for air.

“The sound of your neck breaking will be the sweetest music for me,” Watanabe let out mockingly as he arched his back to be able to pull Reo’s head even more to the back on which the boy let out a cough. He kept trying to hit Watanabe’s head with his elbow while he used his other hand to loosen the grip around his neck.

“Having trouble?” Watanabe asked with a lopsided smile even though there was blood running down his face after Reo had opened a wound on the side of his eye through the permanent impacts.

Reo’s movements got more spastic soon and a few desperate tries of filling his lunges with air failed and ended up coming out as painful coughs instead.

“Let's end this slow and painful! Just as you like it!” Watanabe whispered next to his ear. On that Reo changed his tactic and searched for Watanabe’s face with his hand and tried to attack his eyes with his fingers on which the latter had to pull back a little bit, but of course he couldn't get away without letting go off him.

“Shota, get away from him!” Shintaro shouted from the side, but of course the latter wouldn't listen. But with the way they kept fighting, Watanabe would lose at least one eye before Reo would be forced to give up.

“Idiot, I told him not to be reckless!” Abe hissed and kept shifting in worry while both boys kept trying to cause the bigger damage.

“He'll know his limit, don't worry,” Miyadate let out with a serious expression, his eyes fixed on Watanabe and his prediction soon came true.

With an outraged scream Watanabe finally pulled back completely, releasing Reo out of his grip, but kicked him away at the same moment to be able to create some distance between them before he sat up, holding his hands up to his left eye which he couldn't even open properly anymore by now, blood dripping down between his fingers.

To his luck Reo was also unable to attack for a moment and he remained on the ground, turning on his back while trying to fill his lunges with air again. While the coughing seemed like something just caused by Watanabe's attack Taiga could see more than the others. The struggle of not turning to the side was what he had spotted right away and Reo’s hands moving to his ribs instead of to his neck made clear that he had other injuries from the day before which got worse through their struggling.

Taiga caught himself as he wanted to make a step towards Reo maybe even call out for him, but while he didn't want to see Reo getting hurt like this he also didn't want his club to lose. While struggling with his own emotions he looked up towards the others, finding Ueda staring back at him. Feeling somehow caught and guilty Taiga looked away immediately and focused back on the fight.

“You are right, there is definitely hope for this boy,” Ueda let out facing Nikaido. The other one had also realized Taiga’s struggle as had Kentaro and all three knew that even though they had to keep fighting serious against them that there might be hope to rescue a few if it came to a fight outside the rules of the tournament.

“Bastard!” Watanabe hissed at him as he finally got a grip and got back on his feet. He kept his injured eye closed, but was still steady on his feet while Reo had some trouble to find his balance. This time Watanabe was the one to use his advantage and he dashed forward, attacking Reo nonstop, but the boy was still extremely fast and good in dodging his attacks. Just when a punch hit him on the ribs he jolted and bended to the front, giving Watanabe the weak moment he needed. He lifted his knee and crushed it against Reo’s chin without any hesitation on which the latter lost his orientation completely. He stumbled backwards and when a spinning kick landed in his stomach next he was thrown backwards, already preparing for a hard impact on the ground, but to his surprise his fall got stopped at the very last moment even though he was sure that he had still been a few steps away from Domoto and the others.

When he opened his eyes he found Watanabe in front of him with a confused expression, halting his next attack as if he didn't know how to react. On that Reo looked up, finding Taiga sitting behind him.

He had after all fallen still a step away from them, but right in front of Taiga and the boy’s troubled expression showed that he had caught him without being able to stop his body from moving.

“Idiot, what are you doing?” Reo hissed at him immediately and as expected there was a sound from Domoto next. Just a small cough, but it was enough to tell Taiga that he had overstepped the limits once more.

“I'm sorry… It happened intuitively,” Taiga let out before he helped Reo back up in a sitting position before backing off right away and avoiding eye contact with any of his club members, because he could imagine their confused and shocked expressions.

He stepped away from Reo again and wanted to back off even further, but suddenly a hand on his wrist stopped him and he flinched.

“Sit down, you are way too jumpy today.” Of course it was Domoto who had stopped him and he pulled him towards the chair so that he had to sit down on the armrest. Taiga tensed immediately and as if searching for help his look fell on Ueda, but of course the latter’s eyes were throwing daggers at Domoto. Seeing that reaction Domoto even put his arm around Taiga’s waist on which as expected Ueda let out a growl and made a step forward, but Nikaido stopped him right away, shaking his head.

“Reo, is there any reason why you take so long? You know how much I hate boring fights.”

Another threat, of course and it had the effect he was waiting for. Reo got up again, as if nothing had happened, as if his body wasn't badly hurt from the start and it hurt Taiga more than usual to see him hiding behind his mask.

“Finally done talking?” Watanabe snorted, invitingly spreading his arms. “Come on, I am still not done with paying you back for all the suffering you bought over us!”

“Oh, I feel so sorry,” Reo shot back before he jumped into the next attack. This time none of the two would go down easily, both trying to get the upper hand while avoiding as many blows as possible. But Reo’s pace had gotten faster once more, the determination in his eyes almost seeming scary as he seemed like a robot fighting in some kind of remote mode.

“He’s getting tired,” Miyadate let out worried all of a sudden on which Abe tensed immediately, now seeing it as well. Watanabe backing off further with every attack, his own punches getting weaker and barely break through Reo’s defense.

Soon Reo succeeded in bringing Watanabe out of balance once more, but to everyone’s surprise Watanabe made a comeback instead of going down and hit a sudden kick against Reo’s ribs on which the latter hissed and backed off immediately. After the first hit he had taken there Watanabe had realized that it was his weak spot and he didn’t care for the reason. Whatever injury he carried wasn’t his problem, there was no chance he wouldn’t use that advantage.

“If I don’t get your neck, then let me get at least another bone,” Watanabe let out before he used Reo’s weak moment and threw him over his shoulder. With the next attack he stomped on the boy’s upper body with as much weight as he could somehow bring up and when the cracking noise of the boy’s ribs was heard it was accompanied by a scream from Reo which made Taiga jolt, because he had never heard him scream out like that.

“Oh did that hurt?” Watanabe let out with such a satisfied look that it almost scared the others, but who could blame him? He had gone through hell with his friends because of Mugen and feeling some weird kind of pleasure through taking revenge was definitely something they could all understand.

Watanabe lifted his leg again, but when he brought it down Reo grabbed it and turned to the side at the same moment bringing Watanabe out of balance so that he fell over as well. As if he wasn’t hurt at all Reo crawled on top of him and threw a punch right at his hurt eye on which Watanabe hissed and tried to stop Reo from attacking again, but the boy used another tactic and grabbed one of Watanabe’s arms before he twisted his body sideward, holding Watanabe’s body down with this legs while trapping his arm between them and pulling it to the ground with his hands around his wrist, while his hips moved up, bending Watanabe’s shoulder and arm into the opposite direction.

“SHOTA, GET OUT OF HIS GRIP!” Miyadate shouted, but it was already too late. Watanabe had also realized what he was up to, but Reo was still way faster than him even with his ribs badly hurt and it had taken barely seconds for him to get the upper hand once more. And then there was the sound of breaking bones again and this time it was Watanabe who screamed out.

“SHOTA!” Abe intuitively made a step forward, but Shintaro stopped him before he could interfere. Sakuma also moved, but made sure to control himself as good as possible. It wouldn’t help anyone if they interfered in the fight now after all it seemed almost over anyway.

Watanabe made sure to give Reo another harsh kick the moment the boy released him out of his grip, but even though the kick made Reo hiss before he pulled back far enough to be out of the boy’s reach, all Watanabe could do for now was sitting up on his knees, holding his arm in pain. He didn’t even try to move it, because the way it was hanging in a weird angle from his shoulder made clear that it wouldn’t work anyway.

“Guess after today you have one more reason to take revenge. Maybe it works next time!” Reo said as he got up with a lot of effort, but he approached the boy with steady steps and all Watanabe could do was giving him another death glare, but he couldn’t even get up fast enough to dodge the next attack.

Reo gave him a precise and hard kick right against the neck on which Watanabe landed back on the ground, immobile. Silence followed for a moment in which Abe seemed ready to collapse and Miyadate waited for a signal that the fight was over so that he was allowed to dash towards Watanabe. To his luck a few seconds later Domoto announced that the fight was over and he ran over to Watanabe, followed by Shintaro and Abe.

Carefully he touched the boy’s neck and to his relieve he was still breathing normally and even though his heart rate was extremely erratic all he needed for now was a long rest to be okay again. The treatment of his arm had to wait until they were back at the club, but Kento was already walking up to them as well to help as much as possible and with Abe also being there they would be able to fix the injury quite good for now.

“Reo, are you getting out of shape?” Domoto teased the boy as he walked slowly back towards them, too slow. And before he could even reply his body gave up on him and even with Domoto’s hand around Taiga’s hip the boy jumped up and caught Reo before he sank to the ground.

“Idiot, I told you to stop that!” Reo scolded him right away, but this time Taiga didn’t even care about Domoto. He had won the fight for Avernus, right?

“Taiga,” Domoto started, but the boy turned towards him with a death glare right away on which the Mugen leader raised an eyebrow at him and Ueda tensed at the same moment.

“His wounds need to be treated and that now, not later!” Taiga shot at him, still holding Reo protectively on his shoulders, making clear that he won’t release the boy until Domoto agreed.

“We need to have a talk about the way you are requesting things later I guess, but for now let me do you that favor,” Domoto said in a calm voice and instead of feeling scared because of an upcoming punishment Taiga felt relieved as Domoto turned towards his troop members to gain Taiga’s request.

“Ren, Hagiya take Reo to his room. You should take Aran with you as well.”

The boys which had been in the back, treating Aran’s wounds moved right away and even though Taiga didn’t seem pleased to let someone else take care of him he let Ren and Hagiya take care of Reo for now. Aran could at least walk on his own so he followed them backstage off the stage.

On the other side of the stage they had put Watanabe carefully down and Kento was trying to somehow stabilize his arm as good as possible so that he wouldn’t be in too much pain when he woke up.


	19. Chapter 19

“You might want to draw your next name?” Domoto addressed Nikaido in a formal tone with a small movement over to the bucket before he looked at Taiga again and pointed back at the armchair. The boy moved extremely reluctantly up to him, but what else was he supposed to do? The tournament wasn’t the time and place for him to try something stupid, after all he didn’t want to risk his friends’ safety.

“I’m going to draw the next name,” Ueda announced which made Taiga turn towards him before he reached the chair and the latter kept staring at him while walking over to the buckets.

As if being annoyed by the way those two were looking at each other Domoto grabbed Taiga once more by the wrist and pulled him back on the armchair. On that move Ueda had to gather all his calmness to concentrate on the name on the paper instead of trying to burn Domoto to death with his glare. But looking at the next name didn’t help much, because it made him feel nervous.

“Tegoshi,” Ueda announced and while the other members tensed on that, obviously afraid of the chances he would have against Avernus. But Tegoshi was completely fine with getting selected as he stepped forward with a determined, almost scary expression on his face.

“Draw my opponent,” Tegoshi addressed Ueda on which he took out a paper from the other bucket, but he couldn’t tell if it was a good or bad opponent, because he didn’t know the person. He had just heard the name from Sou before, but what the boy had told him had sounded scary after all, so maybe he wasn’t such an easy opponent for Tegoshi.

“Yamashita.”

The announcement of his name made the one in question chuckle as he stepped forward now all eyes of the fight club members on him.

“Oh shit,” Fukka let out without being able to control his shock, after all this time it wasn’t just that they guessed that Yamashita was stronger because of his appearance, but they knew it. After all Domoto wouldn’t put a fighter under the 4th class in such an important tournament, would he? But they didn’t have enough strong members from the beginning, but Tegoshi didn’t seem scared at all and he made a few determined steps to the front before Ueda walked up to him and stopped him for a moment.

“I know how much you seek for revenge, but-”

“Stop right there,” Tegoshi interrupted him firmly. “I am a member of this club as long as you are, I’ve also gone through almost the same shit as you did, so just trust me, would you?”

His determination made Ueda speechless for a moment on which Tegoshi just passed him to finally stop in front of Yamashita who had walked up to the middle of the stage as well.

“We are all worried, but to be honest I’ve never seen him like this before,” Nikaido said as Ueda went back to him while Domoto gave the start signal for their fight.

“I know, but I am not sure if his behavior is something good or bad.”

“Right after Massu’s death he was almost the same, but instead of the determined look he carries now his mind was clouded by the thought of revenge and a lot of grief he couldn’t deal with. To be honest I think he can handle this fight, it’s like he needs this fight to finally get rid of all those bad emotions and move on.”

Ueda nodded on that, knowing that he was right, but he was still worried that Tegoshi’s emotions could interrupt his logical thinking.

“Such a shame that I didn’t get a Dancing Rascals member, I’d love to rip one of them apart directly, but you are all the same brainless idiots after all, so you should be enough for now.”

“Wow, such harsh words before the first attack already, I like you,” Yamashita let out teasing while they both circled carefully around each other.

“You’ll also like it to get beaten by me?”

“I swear if you win against me I’ll even go as far and kiss your feet, because then you’d be my favorite opponent. After all there is a long list of people like you which thought they could beat me.”

“How long is the list of those which did it?”

“You want to try and be the first name on that list?”

It was quite a challenge and definitely something that made everyone else slowly lose hope, because if Tegoshi lost this fight they would lose the whole tournament and that without even winning a single fight.

“You’re lacking something that makes you weaker than me.”

Yamashita raised an eyebrow on that and Tegoshi stopped at the same moment, giving the latter a piercing look.

“And that would be?”

“Come and find out yourself,” Tegoshi said invitingly as he went into a defense stance on which Yamashita formed a lopsided sneer.

“Giving me the first punch will be your doom. I make sure that you won’t even last two minutes.”

“Don’t worry, short fights are my favorites,” Tegoshi replied confident right before Yamashita dashed forward. He was quite fast, but his speed was still nothing compared to Tegoshi’s. After all he was known for his precise and fast movements and his amazing skills of breaking through his opponent’s defense in just a few minutes. But this time he had to watch out not get knocked out before he could find the right timing. Yamashita’s speed wasn’t his strong point after all, but his punches and they came as fast as Tegoshi dodged them. The first one to get tired would definitely lose the fight.

As expected Tegoshi found some openings here and there after just a few attacks of the other one. But the problem was that his strength wasn't enough to cause the damage he needed to win the fight. “You are not the only one who can analyze here,” Yamashita said exactly the same moment he stopped Tegoshi from breaking through his defense and before Tegoshi could think of any counter Yamashita turned around and threw him over his shoulder as if he was weighting nothing, which was more or less true comparing their body weights. Tegoshi landed on his back with a pained yelp and as he tried to kick up against Yamashita's knee while the later still held on to one of his arms the other one stepped out of his kicking range and suddenly pulled with such a force while twisting his body to the other direction that Tegoshi went flying once more. Instead of landing next to any members the move threw him off the stage and he crushed into the first row of seats.

The fight club members worryingly made a step closer to the edge of the stage, but Tegoshi was already getting up again. It wasn't clear if he got hurt or not, because since the fight had started his expression had been a mask. Not the calm type that Reo carried it, but something that made clear that he wouldn't give up before Yamashita actually killed him. Which actually made Ueda and the others worry even more, but they knew there was no way to stop him anymore. Even if the worst outcome was what would await him he needed this fight.

“You need help?” Yamashita asked mockingly while Tegoshi approached the stage again and jumped up on it with a death glare towards his opponent.

“If you want to help how about you punch yourself in the face?”

Yamashita actually let out a chuckle on Tegoshi’s harsh answer before he dashed into the next attack without a warning.

“Yamashita is playing with him,” Ueda let out worryingly and there was no one questioning what he had just said, because they could all see the same. There had been quite a few chances for Yamashita for some direct hits, but he hadn’t taken them even though it could have easily given him a huge advantage, maybe even the win. But instead he let Tegoshi get tired and because of his weak stamina that happened quite fast and he started to get unconcentrated.

“Tegoshi, watch out!” Kentaro shouted out for him, but of course the attack hit him with full force and once more Tegoshi slid towards the edge of the stage, but even though he had hit the ground extremely hard he succeeded in staying on the stage and getting up once more.

“So you still want to play? I can make this even more entertaining,” Yamashita said with a creepy smile while Tegoshi dashed into his next attack.

“He has lost his focus completely. There is no chance he can break through Yamashita’s defense now,” Ueda let out with a sigh. The moment Tegoshi would lose they had to prepare for the worst. Who knew what would await them after they lost the tournament.

“I doubt he would get beaten that easily,” Nikaido interfered, his eyes fixed on Tegoshi.

“What do you mean? It’s obvious how he fights out of rage, isn’t it?”

“So obvious that Yamashita isn’t taking the fight serious anymore, but treats it as a game.”

Ueda and Kentaro both got what he meant right away and focused back on the fight. Yamashita had started tossing Tegoshi to the ground over and over again while the other one attacked with outraged screams and curses.

“Guys, don’t you think we should throw the towel in before he dies?” Abe was suddenly heard next to Ueda and the others. All the other members which were in the back with Kitayama were all worryingly observing the fight, but Ueda shook his head.

“Trust him.”

“Not that easy with the way he gets tossed around,” Myuto added, but for now they kept waiting for whatever miracle Ueda was waiting for.

“You seriously have a strong will otherwise you wouldn’t be able to get up after my attacks, but to be honest I’ve the feeling Domoto gets bored so I will end this now.”

Indeed Domoto seemed not that interested in the fight anymore after a while and before he could lose his patience Yamashita would just end the fight and with that the tournament as well.

Without even making any effort of a serious attack Yamashita walked up to Tegoshi who had barely made it back into a standing position. But when he reached out for him the latter moved, way faster and more precisely than anyone would have thought he would be able to in his condition. He grabbed the latter’s arm which he had stretched out towards him and without any chance for Yamashita to react in time Tegoshi had jumped up and used a technique with which he was able to bring Yamashita down through his legs wrapping around his upper body. While the latter went to the ground Tegoshi kept a tight grip on his arm and the moment Yamashita hit the ground the sound of breaking bones accompanied the sound of his impact. A scream followed, but Tegoshi was still not done and while Yamashita cursed and tried to get Tegoshi off him even with his arm now immobile hanging from his shoulder, Tegoshi moved fast again and got away before Yamashita could get a grip on him. But the moment the Storm Warrior member was up in a sitting position Tegoshi was behind him and just for a brief moment he halted. Yamashita seemed still too much in pain to even realize that the latter wasn’t in front of him anymore.

“I will start with you, but my revenge won’t be over before I got you all!” Tegoshi hissed his eyes as dark as never before and then he jumped. His attack came without any hesitation, knowing perfectly where to aim. His body’s pain seeming nothing compared to the demons he had to fight in his mind over the past weeks. The kick hit where it was supposed to and again Yamashita crushed into the ground, but this time there was no scream, no curse or complain. There was just silence.

“He...did he…?” Kento started in a low voice while everyone else kept staring at the stage.

“Yes, he killed him,” Nikaido let out. It wasn’t clear if he had seen the outcome coming or not, but there was no way anyone would blame him for what he had done, nor for what he had said. Revenge wasn’t always the wisest thing to choose, but if it was what held Tegoshi together than it was all he needed for now.

“Mhh, I’ve to say I am really impressed,” Domoto was heard behind Tegoshi and the latter turned around with a death glare. It was obviously more than hard for him to not faint after he had gathered all his energy for one last attack, but that didn’t stop him from making a few threatening steps towards the leader.

“Tegoshi, stop!” Nikaido warned him and the latter did as he was told, but kept staring at the Mugen leader.

“Even if I won’t be the one killing you, I will take down as many of your men as I can,” Tegoshi hissed on which the leader formed a challenging smile.

“You have great potential! Tricking Yamashita was a smart move. With not defending yourself anymore after you were too exhausted gave you the time to charge for your final attack, even though you had to take a lot of hits for that and didn’t know if it was going to work. My respect for that plan and your determination.”

“As if you even know what respect means,” Tegoshi let out together with a murderous glare and before he could get provoked too much he turned around and walked back to his own members where Fukka and Myuto had jumped to the front already to help him. And as much as he pretended to be okay the moment the boys helped him he let almost his whole weight collapse on them.

“Feeling better?” Nikaido asked as they carried him to the back next to Kitayama and Watanabe.

“Trust me, I’ve never felt this satisfied in my whole life,” Tegoshi let out with a proud, yet hurt smile. After all revenge wouldn’t bring Massu back and of course he knew that, but for now it was all that kept his mind focused.

It didn’t took anyone by surprise that Domoto didn’t seem at all affected by the loss of one of his best fighters and while Sho looked a little bit surprised he didn’t seem angry. It was an extremely weird picture seeing Avernus treating the loss of one of their best man as something completely meaningless, as if any member was replaceable at any moment.

Just one snap of Domoto’s fingers made a few of the Storm Warriors members move and they carried Yamashita’s lifeless body off stage.

“Congratulations on your comeback, I think we are ready for the last round then?”

There was no answer, just a lot of hateful glares towards the leader on which he let out an amused chuckle. “I take that as a yes. Yara would you do us the favor and draw a name?”

Yara bowed towards him before he moved over to the buckets and took a name out of the North Tokyo Fight Club bucket first.

“Nikaido.”

“I will draw my opponent myself,” Nikaido announced right away, but before he moved towards the stage he turned towards Kentaro who had as he expected turned pale through the announcement. “It will be okay!”

“Didn’t we say any lies between us anymore?” The statement was kind of teasing, but Kentaro couldn’t really form the encouraging expression he wanted to and Nikaido stepped closer to him to be able to cup his face.

“Even if we don’t know how this tournament will end, I want you to keep fighting, is that clear? Even if we lose here we can still retreat and form another plan.”

“But without you-”

“No one said you have to do so without me. Trust me, okay?”

Kentaro nodded slowly, the fear still visible in his eyes. After all they could all get as easily killed as Yamashita and now that they had killed one of their men who could guarantee that they wouldn’t take one of their lives in return?

“If you win there will be one more round to settle the tournament,” Ueda explained casually next to them on which Nikaido nodded.

“I am not planning on losing,” Nikaido replied with a lopsided smile on which Ueda nodded.

“Didn’t expect anything else.”

Nikaido knew how much weight was on his shoulders through that important fight, but he felt relieved that it was him instead of anyone of their members or Kitayama’s men. Yara stepped back to his troop when Nikaido walked up to the buckets and drew a name.

When he unfolded the paper there was a shadow passing his face and Kentaro tensed right away, but then suddenly Nikaido’s look changed and it turned into something challenging as he moved up to the Avernus members and stopped in front of them, lifting the paper up for all of them to be able to read it. At the same moment he pointed out at his opponent.

“You!”

There were several reactions to that announcement. Kentaro almost chocked, Myuto’s jaw dropped and a few others stared in disbelieve at the person he pointed at.

“Oh, what a lucky draw,” Domoto said as he got up from the chair as he read his own name on the paper.

“No…” Kentaro let out in shock and wanted to make a step forward, but Ueda took him by the elbow and pulled him back.

“Don’t be stupid, it’s not like it is unfair that he put his name in. Let’s be happy that Nikaido drew him and not one of the others.”

“Right, because it doesn’t matter when he kills Nikaido or what?” Kentaro hissed at him on which Ueda raised an eyebrow at him with a warning glare. Kentaro took a deep breath and tried to calm down even though it wasn’t easy. “Sorry, I know that you didn’t mean that.”

“I know you are worried, but as he said trust him! If someone can beat Domoto then it is Nikaido!”

“I know,” Kentaro let out in a low voice. He knew that better than anyone else, but it didn’t make it easier.

“Hey, we are all here with you! Whatever happens we will stay with you!” Fuma was suddenly heard behind him and before Kentaro could turn around Fukka flung one arm around his shoulder followed by Myuto.

“We are also here for you!”

“As are we,” Miyadate added, even though he remained at Watanabe’s side together with Abe, but both nodded towards Kentaro with an encouraging smile.

“We’ve faced too much shit over the past years to easily get down like this, right?” Kitayama added teasingly on which Hikaru and Daiki chuckled.

“This has become a fight for the sake of the whole Underground, even if it was out of different reasons,” Kento added as he walked up to Kentaro together with Fuma.

“And now we will all end this together,” Ueda added and everyone nodded.

“Oh isn’t that sweet. You have such a lovely troop behind you.”

On Domoto’s mocking voice everyone turned towards the stage where Domoto had walked up towards Nikaido and was now facing him with a teasing expression before he looked over to Kentaro for a moment. “I guess someone will be really sad if you don’t return?”

Nikaido didn’t react to his try to pick a fight, but he turned his head towards his members’ direction with a determined look before he cracked a faint smile which surprised them all a little bit. Domoto seemed amused by the sudden confident look he gave him when he turned back towards him.

“First, no one will be sad, because I will definitely win this fight and second they are no troop, but my family and I will do anything to get all of my family members out of here together and I mean all of them!”

With his last words his look fell on Taiga who was staring back at him with a weird expression. Of course he was more than grateful for his words, but that statement could bring a lot of trouble as well, especially if the Fight Club was going to lose the tournament.

“Interesting,” Domoto replied with a brief look back at Taiga who tensed right away, but with Reo gone there was no one he was feeling safe around, so he remained rooted to the spot, trying to hide his discomfort.

“Then let’s get over with this,” Nikaido said as he got ready for the fight, but Domoto still remained in a neutral stance for a moment and it seemed like he was lost in his thoughts all of a sudden. When he faced Nikaido again a wide smile spread all over his face, which confused the other one, but he still remained cautious as Domoto made a step back.

“I give up,” Domoto announced without any kind of hesitation.

“That was a joke, right?” Myuto asked in confusion, but Fukka just shrugged his shoulders, while Kentaro had tensed even more through that statement. Was he up to something? Was it some kind of trap?

The next to move though was Nikaido and he moved a few steps back as well. “I heard you loved games, but this is already an insane level. You are risking the life of one more of your fighters, just so you can have one more fight to watch?”

First relief took over Kentaro, because that meant it hadn’t been a joke and Nikaido was safe, but then he felt how panic rose inside of him again. After all the last fight was going to settle the tournament and there were not many names left in the buckets. With Nikaido winning his fight without even competing it was an easy win for them and they had one more chance to win the tournament, but their best fighter had been more or less of no use like that.

Obviously able to understand the fight club members’ worries Domoto walked back to his chair and sat down with a satisfied look. “Please feel free to draw the last names.”

“I will draw it,” Kentaro announced as Nikaido had walked back towards them with a kind of apologizing look even though everyone knew that he wasn’t too blame for anything at all. This was one of Domoto’s twisted games and he knew perfectly how to make it the most entertaining.

“This is our last chance,” Miyadate let out worried as Kentaro went slowly over to the buckets and suddenly all eyes were resting on him. His heart was hammering against his chest like crazy as he drew a name from their side first and unfolded the paper with shaking fingers.

The name he read on the paper made his heart drop to his feet and he closed his eyes with a shaking breath.


	20. Chapter 20

“Who did you draw?” Kento asked with a worried look over Kentaro’s reaction.

Kentaro looked up at his friends with an apologizing look before he turned the paper to show them. “I drew myself.”

This time it was Nikaido’s turn to give him the same worried look he had received in the last round, but this time there was no way things would end without trouble. The last fight was deciding the fate of the Underground and Kentaro had to carry that burden.

“Oh, I think all your hopes lie in the hand of that little boy then,” Domoto interfered on which he received once more a lot of angry glares. “But who knows, maybe he draws a lucky opponent?”

“Like who? Juri or Kochi? As if that would be an easy fight,” Fuma let out with a death glare towards the two boys which were still trying to hide in the background, but of course they had heard him and while Kochi didn’t seem to care Juri looked away with a kind of guilty expression.

Kentaro went over to the second bucket and drew a paper without thinking for too long, after all waiting wouldn’t change anything. With a deep breath he unfolded the paper, but it felt like an eternity until he was able to realize which name he was reading on the paper and then his expression changed a thousand colors before he turned completely pale in seconds.

“Kentaro?” Nikaido asked worryingly, but didn’t dare to walk up to him, even though they weren’t exactly forbidden to move around on stage, as much as he knew at all, but he didn’t want to risk anything so he waited for the boy to speak up, but it still took some time before he could comprehend what fight was awaiting him.

“Why is his name in here? What is going on?” Kentaro turned towards Domoto instead of his own members and the leader had obviously guessed already which name he had drawn and a wide smile spread over his face.

“All people on my side are allowed to compete.”

“He is not one of your members!”

“But he is on this side of the stage,” Domoto interrupted him with sheer amusement showing on his face over the way Kentaro started freaking out.

“As if he put his name in here on his own, you can’t force him to fight!”

“Oh I don’t have to. He will enter the fight on his own free will, you can ask him,” Domoto added waving his hand to the right of his chair on which Kentaro finally looked at Taiga who had went pale the same way as Kentaro, because he had also realized right away which name he had drawn.

“That must be a joke…” Ueda let out as he finally realized what was going on. Before Nikaido could stop him Ueda had made a few big steps towards the middle of the stage on which Domoto looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

“He is not going to fight!”

“Oh, and you are deciding that because?”

“As Kentaro said he is not one of your members and you are not short of strong members, so there is no need for you to add other people in the tournament! And forcing him to fight is something I won’t allow!”

“And again I have to repeat myself and trust me I hate repeating myself,” Domoto started as he stood up and approached Taiga, putting his hand on his shoulder what made the boy flinch slightly and made Ueda and Kentaro tense. “I told you to ask him directly, so Taiga would you be as nice and tell them that you entered the tournament on your free will?”

Sure, he had gotten a chance of refusing, but the consequences would have been fatal. He had entered on his free will yes, but fighting serious was something which would happen through Domoto’s threat, but he knew that Domoto would make sure that he wasn’t starting a discussion about this now and there was no reason for it anyway, because he had to fight. There was no way he would refuse the fight and seal all of their fates just because he had to fight his best friend.

“I entered the tournament on my own. I will take on this fight,” Taiga let out as neutral as possible, but he still got a disbelieving look from Ueda and Kentaro in return.

“What are you saying? Taiga, I can’t possibly fight you!” Kentaro shouted, slowly losing the rest of his calm.

“But you have to or Avernus will win the tournament.”

It was a weird picture seeing Taiga standing next to Domoto and explaining the facts as if it didn’t matter at all which personal connections were involved in this fight.

“With what did you threaten him to make him enter the tournament?” Ueda hissed at the leader and made another step forward, but this time Domoto’s look darkened a little bit and he snapped his fingers on which Sho, Takizawa and their men all moved a little bit to the front on which Kentaro and Ueda automatically made a step backward.

“Ueda, come back here!” Nikaido hissed from the back, after all he had to worry for Kentaro as well if Ueda was going to make any stupid move.

“Come on, this is ridiculous! As if Taiga could even seriously fight against Kentaro,” Ueda complained right away.

“I will fight seriously though,” Taiga replied to everyone’s surprise, everyone except Domoto who was smiling like a proud parent next to him. Taiga was slowly building up a mask, the same one Reo was wearing most of the time and that was all he could do now to somehow make this work, after all he was going to fight serious, because Domoto would realize right away if he didn’t, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t find a way for Kentaro to win. But to succeed with that he had to make the other one fight serious as well and that wouldn’t be possible if he seemed vulnerable, so in the matter of minutes he had made up his mind and locked every unnecessary emotion away, focusing on the fight.

“Taiga, you can’t be serious…” Ueda let out in shock, his eyes begging the boy to snap out of it, but all he received in return was a cold stare and it gave him the creeps. Never had he seen Taiga in such a state and once more he cursed himself for not being able to rescue him earlier. What hardship had he gone through to even be able to build up such a wall?

“I am and now please step back, you are blocking the stage,” Taiga let out with a cold voice and even though Ueda shook his head he made a step back, almost as if he was suddenly afraid of Taiga, as if someone he didn’t know was standing in front of him.

“Ueda, calm down. There is nothing you can do for now,” Nikaido warned him once more, as he got a grip on his arm and dragged him back towards their side. He didn’t have to hold him back, because all of a sudden his rage was gone completely and a numb state had taken over him and he could do nothing more than stare at Taiga who was already stepping towards the stage, but Domoto stopped him once more.

“Wait, let me make it easier for you.”

When Domoto suddenly pulled out a small key and stepped behind Taiga to open his metal collar the boy froze for a moment and when the heavy metal around his neck was suddenly gone for the first time in weeks he felt like he hadn’t breathed at all over all that time as he took a deep breath and moved his hands up to his neck, feeling all the slight bruises he still had on his skin.

“We don’t want to give your opponent any advantage, right?” Domoto added as he threw the collar on his chair. Taiga looked at him over his shoulder as he still didn’t move away and he reached out for the boy once more, making Taiga feel a little bit uncomfortable as his hands landed on his neck first, but moved up to his hair out of a sudden. “I am not sure if you have even noticed how much your hair has grown, but I think like this it would be in the way.”

It wasn’t like Domoto really cared, but Taiga knew that of course. All he wanted to do was provoke the others and he succeeded, at least a little bit, because Ueda was still not showing any reaction. He seemed still too shocked to get angry at the latter even as his fingers brushed over Taiga’s cheek as he put the strands back into a ponytail.

“Don’t disappoint me,” Domoto whispered next to his ear, before he pushed him to the front and Taiga automatically turned around towards him and bowed without even getting asked to do it. The sudden fascinated shine in Domoto’s eyes made Taiga clench his fists, but everything he was doing was part of a bigger plan, which didn’t end with the tournament. This was his chance to earn the leader’s trust and just in case Avernus would win the tournament he needed to make sure that he could somehow keep going with Reo’s bending, not breaking plan, but for that he had to use new methods, even though he was already hurting Ueda with it and he would definitely make Kentaro doubt his actions as well. But wearing Reo’s mask was coming in useful so that he wouldn’t break under his own actions.

“Might the better fighter win,” Domoto said with outstretched arms, opening the fight and this time he remained in a standing position, obviously too interested in the fight to sit down again.

Kentaro was stepping back right away as Taiga kept staring at him almost emotionless, but when he realized that he was backing off towards his own members he forced his legs to stay still, after all he couldn’t just run away from this fight could he? He didn’t want to fight against Taiga and he wasn’t stupid, he also knew that there was a reason why Taiga was shutting them all out all of a sudden.

“You want to make it that easy for me?” Taiga asked as he waited for Kentaro to step forward again, but the older one just kept staring at his friend. Taking the other one’s hesitation to his advantages Taiga dashed forward into his first attack and Kentaro had to learn the hard way that Taiga wasn’t faking anything as he got a first punch right under the ribs, followed by a sudden upper cut with the other hand which took him by such a surprise that it took him off his feet right away. While there was laughter and whistling heard on the Avernus side, a lot of disbelieving stares came from the fight club side. Without getting distracted by it Taiga moved again and lifted Kentaro up on his collar. The boy had ended up being in a shock as well after all he still couldn’t believe that Taiga was fighting against him for real.

Taiga let go of him for just a brief moment, halting as if he wanted to give him the change to attack, but of course he didn’t. With his next attack he forced Kentaro to back off once more as he gave him a harsh kick in the stomach, but when he moved forward to attack with a punch Kentaro dodged right in time, which wasn’t that helpful because Taiga seemed to have seen it coming and added a spinning kick which took Kentaro off his feet once more and made him fall right in front of Ueda. But the latter didn’t help him up, because his look was still on Taiga.

When Taiga suddenly faced him the older one almost jolted through the cold look he received.

“What did he do to you?” Ueda let out almost in a whisper, but Taiga had still heard him. Instead of a direct answer though he faced Kentaro again who was trying to get on his feet once more.

“Something that will make Avernus win if you don’t start fighting serious,” Taiga replied towards Kentaro who shook his head right away.

“I can’t fight you! Damn it, Taiga, how am I supposed to fight against you after everything we faced together?” Kentaro’s voice was shaking and he didn’t even try to calm down. He didn’t care if anyone would laugh at him for getting emotional, but they forced him to fight his best friend, how was that supposed to not make him feel completely ripped apart?

It took everyone by surprise when Taiga dashed forward once more, attacking Kentaro with strong and precise attacks, which made Ueda and also Nikaido look at each other in pure disbelieve. They couldn’t understand how Taiga had changed his fighting style so drastically out of a sudden, but Taiga’s answer had already shown them that it had been done just for one reason, for Taiga being able to win against his own family. He knew all their tactics and styles, all he had needed was a way to be able to stand a chance against them and at least against Kentaro he was superior without a doubt, at least as long as the other one wouldn’t fight back.

After a few more attacks Kentaro started running away, trying to avoid all the blows he got from his friend, but Taiga hadn’t hold back and his friend had already several bruises on his face, a bleeding lip and trouble to move his left leg after Taiga had kicked it quite harshly.

Taiga on the other hand was still completely fine, not even out of breath and he kept chasing after the older one, grabbing him by the clothes to make him stop and soon their fight ended up in something like a quarrel as Kentaro dragged Taiga to the ground and tried to pin him down.

“Taiga, please stop!” Kentaro shouted at him as he avoided another punch and got a tight grip on Taiga’s arm while trying to pin the other one down as well, but Taiga was faster and twisted his body under Kentaro so that he lost balance and with the next move Taiga was sitting on top of Kentaro. And then there was another punch on the boy’s face and another, and another…

“Kentaro! Do something, ANYTHING!” Nikaido was heard next to them with an almost outraged shout. It wasn’t clear if he was really angry at Kentaro or disappointed in Taiga or just as confused as everyone else, but for now he wanted Kentaro to defend himself. It was clear to everyone that Taiga would just keep striking down on him until Kentaro would either go KO or finally start a counter attack, but even when Kentaro coughed out blood and tried to turn to the side he still wasn’t willing to fight.

“IDIOT, DO SOMETHING!” Fuma was heard next to them as well now with Kento standing next to him with a pale expression.

“Kentaro, please you have to get a grip!” Abe begged him now as well, after all he could understand his situation, but there was too much at stake to let him lose like this.

Still no reaction, even with all his friends shouting out for him and even when Taiga realized that his hands were already blood stained he kept punching his friend.

“TAIGA, YOU IDIOT, WOULD YOU JUST TALK TO US?”

The sudden shouting followed a weird silence and finally Taiga also halted, his fist stopping in the air as he lunged out. With wide eyes he looked up at Myuto who had stepped in front of everyone with an extremely pissed expression.

“You two went through so much! WE ALL went through so much shit together that it is not fair of you to shut us out like this! Don’t you trust us?”

It was not just confusing Taiga, but also most of the others to have Myuto being the one to make Taiga react, but who else would be able to at the moment? Ueda was not more than a statue since the fight had started and Kentaro was busy drowning in his misery and while everyone else tried to reach Kentaro, Myuto had finally realized that the one they needed to reach instead was Taiga!

“Whatever is going on you won’t be able to solve it the way you try right now! Look at Kentaro and tell me that whatever you are planning is working?”

Every word was actually quite risky, because Domoto and everyone else could hear him, but at least for now Domoto didn’t seem as if he felt the need to interfere, he actually seemed quite amused by the whole dramatic atmosphere.

When Taiga finally dared to take a deep breath he lowered his arm and faced his friend with wide eyes. Kentaro was staring back at him with tears glittering in his eyes and while it wasn’t clear if they were there because of the physical or mental pain, one look was enough to make Taiga’s mask finally crumble.

“Leave me alone...I’ve to make sure that he will fight…” Taiga whispered with a shaking voice.

“And beating him up like this will help? Taiga, you weren’t that weak before! What happened that you can’t handle this the way you normally do?”

“Weak…?” Taiga let out in shock, because everything he had done over the past days was to make him strong and not weak. His almost perfect mask, his will to attack his best friend for the sake of the fight club to be able to win, but he had mistaken! They didn’t know of Domoto’s threat that he would kill them if he wasn’t fighting serious and even though they could of course guess that something wasn’t right they needed him to show them what was wrong. That was what Myuto meant! His strength!

When he reached out for Kentaro again the boy flinched, afraid of getting another punch, but Taiga clenched his hands in the boy’s shirt instead and when Kentaro realized that he suddenly started shaking he looked up at him questioning.

“Taiga?”

This time it was Taiga who jolted, because he had never even once in his life wished for someone to voice out his name with so much fear in his voice.

“I’m sorry….” Taiga whispered. His voice was low enough to not get heard by the Avernus members, but still be heard by all the fight club members in front of him. “I should have known better, but...I-I really turned weak I guess…” Taiga let out with a self-mocking chuckle. Just for a brief moment he lifted his gaze to meet Ueda’s look which had turned a little bit softer, but there were so many questions and worries showing in that look that Taiga felt like he could lose his own battle which he was fighting inside if he looked at him for too long, so he looked back down at Kentaro with a determined look. There was no time for long talks or explanations. It was already getting suspicious enough for Domoto and Taiga couldn’t risk that they would get punished because of him, but he had to use other methods to reach his goals, thanks so Myuto’s sudden outburst he had realized that.

 With a rough movement he clenched his hands even tighter in Kentaro’s shirt and lifted him up from the ground, but before he released him he pulled him closer so that he could whisper in his ear.

“If I don’t fight, you will all die! If you don’t fight you all might die as well!”

When Taiga stepped back Kentaro remained rooted to the spot for a moment, obviously not capable of comprehending what he had just heard. Once more he shook his head, but Taiga’s expression changed drastically on that reaction which made Ueda suddenly relax, because finally there was some emotion back on his face and his mask had no chance to rebuild.

“Please, Kentaro…” Taiga begged, while he was more than happy that he was facing Domoto with his back, so that his own members could see how much he struggled with the situation as well, but he had to make Kentaro fight no matter what and now that he had finally snapped out of it he had better chances in convincing Kentaro, because normally the other one understood one expression of him way better than a thousand words could ever explain.

With a low curse Kentaro lowered his head and a small sob was heard as the boy clenched his fists so hard that they started shaking. “I’ll make him pay for this!”

When Kentaro lifted his head again tears of anger glittered in his eyes, but there was also determination showing in them, so strong that Taiga made a step backwards when Kentaro stepped forward. “And I’ll also bring you home!”

This time it was Taiga who didn’t move as Kentaro dashed forward or more like he couldn’t move, because of what Kentaro had just said and because of the look in his eyes. With that determination he was going to win this fight no matter what! He had fought against Nikaido as well to rescue him, so he could do the same for Taiga as well.

The first attack made Taiga stumble backwards, but the punch hadn’t been strong enough to take him off his feet, but the following kick would have done so if he hadn’t moved to the side at the last moment.

Now Kentaro was attacking without a break and Taiga tried as good as possible to dodge or block his attacks, but then suddenly Kentaro grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer.

“Fight back,” He hissed at him before he pushed him back, followed by a harsh kick in the stomach which made Taiga gasped, but with great effort he remained on his feet. Kentaro went on distance after that attack, obviously having trouble to catch his breath. The injuries he carried from Taiga’s first attacks also seemed to make it hard for him to stand a chance if the fight got too long. But the reason why he wanted Taiga to fight back was obvious and luckily Taiga got the hint. After all Domoto knew how his fighting had improved, if he was just giving up now and let Kentaro win the fight the leader would notice.

When Kentaro jumped forward, aiming with a kick directly to Taiga’s face the latter finally got a grip and blocked the attack and instead of pushing Kentaro away he grabbed his leg and while he jumped up he made Kentaro fall down on his back with a pained yelp.

Their fight continued on the ground as Taiga jumped on top of him, his knee slamming right in his soda plexus through which Kentaro was out of air for a moment and couldn’t dodge the punch that followed. While Taiga’s punches had never been that hard before even with them training seriously at the fight club back then, his strength had suddenly increased and Kentaro blocked the next punch right in time before Taiga could actually break his cheekbone.

“Is it just me who thinks that this is completely wrong?” Shintaro asked worried after he had stayed in the background for most of the time, not able to even comprehend how Taiga had suddenly changed, but seeing how his friends had been able to make his mask fall again he wanted to believe that they still had a chance, but the way they could win the tournament wasn’t a pleasant one for either of them.

“Trust me, we all don’t like it,” Nikaido replied neutral his eyes fixed on the boys as they kept fighting. For him and Ueda it seemed like one of their training fights which got a little bit out of hand, but what made it so hard was that there was no chance for them to interfere and make them stop.

With a loud curse Kentaro kicked Taiga finally off him, but the boy succeeded in getting up the same moment as the older one, but this time Kentaro got the upper hand quite fast with Taiga getting tired and unconcentrated, that was one of his weak points that had remained, while Kentaro was the type who could keep fighting even with the heaviest injuries.

Kentaro used his typical dance moves to attack from different angles and while Taiga’s usual style was actually quite good to avoid those attacks the new rough style they had taught him, wasn’t that helpful against it. So with the next twist and a spinning kick from the side Taiga was taken off his feet and turned around to stop his fall with his hands. He remained on the ground for a brief moment, trying to catch his breath and make the stars disappear in front of his eyes, but when he looked up he found someone crouching down in front of him and that someone was of course no one else than Domoto.

“Getting tired?” The man asked in a way too calm way, because after all it seemed like Taiga was losing and it should make him furious, but he just smiled at him as he grabbed him by the arm and helped him up again.

“You are disturbing the fight,” Kentaro was heard behind them on which Domoto’s eyes landed on the boy as he looked over Taiga’s shoulder and his smile grew even more entertained before he turned Taiga around on his shoulders and pushed him back towards the stage.

“Pardon,” Domoto said with pure excitement showing all over his face while he looked at Taiga once more who was looking at him over his shoulder, but all Domoto did was a head movement to the front and Taiga turned away again, facing his friend once more.

“Guess this is the last attack for both of us,” Kentaro let out between deep breathes while he started circling around Taiga who started moving in the same rhythm to keep his distance.

“Let’s hope it won’t be our last fight though,” Taiga replied before he dashed forward, followed by Kentaro who blocked his first punch and also the knee Taiga tried to hit against his ribs. What Taiga hadn’t seen coming at all was Kentaro’s next move as he hit his forehead against Taiga’s with full force, making the latter yelp and try to pull back. But instead of releasing him Kentaro took a tight grip on his arms and pulled him back, this time copying Taiga’s attack and hitting his knee up against the other one’s body, but he didn’t stop there. When Taiga leant forward on the sudden impact Kentaro grabbed him by the hair and forced his head down while he lifted up his knee once more. The ominous sound that followed when his knee hit against Taiga’s jaw made a few fight club members flinch. That attack could have already decided the outcome of the fight, but as if wanting to be sure that they didn’t have to fight for even longer Kentaro added one more attack, making sure that Taiga was definitely not getting up again. While Taiga was already ready to collapse to the back Kentaro pulled him back once more just to jump up and land a fast and strong kick with both of his legs on Taiga’s chest.

While Kentaro landed on his back without taking too much damage through his own attack, Taiga slammed into the ground a few meters away from him without even letting out a sound and for a moment the whole hall had fallen silent, until Taiga took another deep breath followed by a pained groan.

“Kentaro, stop! He won’t get up again” Ueda scolded the boy as Kentaro got up once more and approached Taiga. His own injuries made it hard for him to walk steady and when he had reached the boy he dropped to his knees next to him. Taiga had his eyes closed, a pained expression on his face and the way he pressed his lips together it showed that Kentaro had definitely done a lot of harm to his jawbone through his attack. With shaking hands he reached out for his friend who finally opened his eyes as he realized that he was next to him.

Ueda got ready to scold him again, scared that he would keep attacking Taiga until he lost consciousness, even though the fight should be settled already, after all it was clear that Taiga was definitely not capable of continuing the fight anymore. But everything came different than Ueda had thought when Kentaro flung his arms around Taiga. He tried to be as careful as possible, but he couldn’t stop his grip from getting desperate, especially when Taiga moved his arms around the latter’s back without any hesitation.

“I’m so sorry! Taiga, please forgive me!”


	21. Chapter 21

They had succeeded in fighting serious through the threat that was making it impossible for them to refuse the fight, but now that it was settled both their will to keep a strong front had crumbled to pieces. Kentaro was crying nonstop while he kept apologizing over and over again, his face buried at the latter’s neck. But Taiga just kept shaking his head, pulling the other one closer with a desperate grip as if he was afraid that if he let go now that he was taken away from him.

“Thank you, Kentaro…” Taiga whispered while trying hard to keep his voice steady, but then his look fell on Ueda at the other side of the stage and that made his last defenses break as well. They had been all out of reach for such a long time and the short hug Ueda had dared at the last meeting had been everything he had been able to hold on to so far, but having Kentaro so close to him was making him feel safe finally, even though he knew he shouldn’t feel like it. He wasn’t a fool, he knew it wasn’t over, but he was done keeping a strong front.

“Please don’t leave me behind,” Taiga whispered as he almost clawed his hands into Kentaro’s back. “Kentaro, please! I want to go home…” his last sentence was swallowed by a sob and Kentaro pulled him up into a sitting position on which the boy let out a groan, but didn’t complain.

“I won’t leave you here! We won the tournament, we can go home now! All of us.”

“Said who?”

It would have been too easy after all, but that didn’t mean that Kentaro wouldn’t keep Taiga close in his arms as Domoto suddenly stepped forward.

“Give him back to us,” Kentaro demanded as he looked up at the latter with a death glare, but all he received was a teasing smile in return before the Avernus leader ignored him for now and looked up at the other fight club members.

“Congratulations, you won the tournament. With your win I will guarantee that your fight club won’t be attacked by any Avernus member from now on.”

“Are you kidding us?” Nikaido hissed at him, while most of the other members also got ready to protest.

“Why are you so surprised? Did my invitation letter say anything about what you’d gain from your win? It’s your own fault for not confirming about that in the first place.”

It was the truth after all, but that didn’t make it any less ridiculous how he treated the tournament win. He had planned from the start to make them upset even if they won and he had definitely succeeded.

“You didn’t tell us, but we won so we should be allowed to decide what we gain out of it ourselves,” Ueda interfered.

“Oh, so being safe while we take control of the Underground isn’t enough for you?”

“Screw the Underground! Give me back Taiga, NOW!”

It didn’t even surprise anyone that Ueda lost it right away on the mocking expression Domoto showed him on his outburst. With an outraged scream Ueda wanted to dash forward, but luckily Nikaido was fast enough to stop him or more like he tried. Just when Miyadate and Shintaro also helped to hold Ueda back they were actually able to make him move backwards.

“Please, Ueda calm down! You’ve seen what he is capable of! If we do something stupid now it will have huge consequences,” Shintaro tried to reason with him, but arguing with logic was something that wouldn’t work for Ueda at the moment.

“And here I gave you such a great opportunity to keep your oh so important Underground family safe and away from all the fighting.”

“TAIGA IS MY FAMILY, SO GIVE HIM BACK,” Ueda roared once more, but this time the Avernus members also stepped closer as Ueda tried once more to dash forward.

“Aw, so many feelings. I love how you are ready to run into your own death for him, but I doubt he wants that, right Taiga?”

When the focus was brought back to the boy on the ground, Kentaro intuitively tightened his grip on the younger one on which he received a small groan, but Taiga also kept clinging to him not even turning his head to the leader.

“Please let me go…” Taiga was heard with his face still buried against the latter’s chest. “Please….I want to go home…”

Silence followed Taiga’s begging for a moment before Domoto stepped right in front of the boys with his hands on his back.

Ueda and the others weren’t that far away from them on the other side of the stage, but for now they halted, waiting for what the leader had to say.

“Can you deal with the consequences of that request?”

If he could deal with all of them dying here and now, because he was about to finally break? No of course he couldn’t deal with that. But he also couldn’t find the will to get up and move back to Domoto, to live through hell once more for who knew how long before the others would finally find a way to rescue him, IF they found a way.

“Please…”

“Boy would you be so nice and step back to your members so you can leave our hideout?”

The question was directed to Kentaro, but of course the boy didn’t do as he was told. If Taiga had looked up at Domoto he could have maybe warned him that he was running out of patience, but all he could do was trying to not get separated from Kentaro. As if he was his lifeline he held on to him, ready to fight off anyone who tried to separate them, but of course Domoto had other ways, more effective ones.

The leader didn’t seem in the mood for games or long conversations and with a sigh his hand vanished in the back of his coat and when he pulled out a gun, pointing it directly at Kentaro’s forehead it was Nikaido this time who had to try hard not to do anything stupid.

“I asked nicely once, I won’t do so a second time,” Domoto warned him, but once more Kentaro didn’t move and slowly he started shaking his head.

“Give him back!” He demanded in a steady voice, while Taiga was still trying to stop his sobs. He had seen the gun out of the corner of his eyes and he knew that Domoto wouldn’t hesitate to shoot, but once more his body didn’t want to let him move.

“I give your fighters one chance to take you away from him,” Domoto started and Nikaido got the message right away and moved without any hesitation, dashing forward and grabbing Kentaro by the arms, forcing him to let go of Taiga.

“What are you doing? No! Nikaido, STOP!”

The younger one tried to make Nikaido let go of him and Taiga also kept clawing his hands in his shirt, but in the end Nikaido won the struggle and he pulled Kentaro away from the younger one even though Kentaro was shouting at him and even tried to kick and punch him to make him let go.

“LET GO, WE CAN’T LEAVE HIM BEHIND,” Kentaro shouted outraged, but all Nikaido did was holding on to him as tight as possible, while the others were still trying to keep Ueda calm.

“I know it’s hard, but we are no help if we are dead,” Nikaido tried to reason with him, but the same as Ueda it was hard to reach him. “Everyone get ready, we are leaving!”

Nikaido’s announcement made everyone freeze for a moment, but soon they realized that there was nothing else they could do if they wanted to stay alive to form a new plan.

Daiki and Hikaru helped Kitayama up, while Abe helped Watanabe. Fuma and Kento took care of Tegoshi while Shintaro and Miyadate tried their best to drag Ueda with them.

Kentaro was still cursing as Nikaido tried to drag him along and it was anything but easy and seeing how Taiga looked at them in sheer panic made them all feel like the biggest cowards.

But truth was that they knew Taiga would understand as soon as he calmed down. At the moment they were all too outraged and angry to be able to think logical, what they needed was a plan.

“Isn’t your family obedient? Look what sacrifice for you! But don’t worry, as I promised, from now on they will be safe.”

Domoto crouched down next to Taiga and the boy flinched when his hand reached out for his hair. Just a light touch with the back of his hand on his hair, but it was the indicator to make him realize what would await him once more from now on.

“Don’t touch me!” Taiga hissed at him as he turned away from him and slashed away his hand, crawling away as he still couldn’t get up easily through his injuries.

That reaction made the fight club members halt once more and Ueda got ready to break free, but Miyadate hissed something at him the others couldn’t hear as he pushed him towards the stairs.

“Boys, move!” Nikaido shouted to the back as he realized that Fukka and Myuto weren’t following them.

“How can we leave him behind with someone like this?” Fukka let out between gritted teeth, because it didn’t take a genius to realize what kind of interest Domoto had in Taiga.

“Oh don’t worry, I take good care of him,” Domoto let out with a lopsided sneer as he stood up again and left Taiga sitting on the ground next to him for now while he waited for the two boys to move, but to his surprise Myuto made a step to the front instead.

“Always playing your games and getting away with it, because everyone is too afraid to stop you! It’s time to show you that you are not the god you think you are!”

“MYUTO, NO!”

Even though Nikaido had realized right away what he was up to, all of them were already too far away as he dashed forward and instead of stopping him Fukka followed his example.

“Again I am getting called a god, maybe I should finally accept the title and show you what a god can do,” Domoto replied in a calm voice as he lifted his gun. Fukka and Myuto shouted at him as they dashed into their attack, while Nikaido yelled at them to stop and most of the others were too shocked to interfere, until one more person moved!

Too many times have they ended up in similar situations, too often have they shouted out for their friends to stop the worst from happening, but as so often there was nothing they could do…

The silence after the shot lasted just for a few seconds, but for most it felt like a whole lifetime. The first to move was Myuto as he realized what had happened and he let out a shaking breath while he shook his head in disbelieve.

“No...please, no,” he whispered, but even though Taiga was facing him with his back he knew that he had messed up completely this time.

“Look what you’ve done,” Domoto let out kind of annoyed as he lowered the gun and kept staring at Taiga who was looking back at him with a look full of hatred but also something different, something stronger: pride! The one thing Reo had told him to overcome had saved him from giving up this time and yes he couldn’t feel prouder, because he had saved his friends’ lives.

On quite unsteady feet Taiga turned to face Myuto and Fukka which looked back at him with wide eyes, because the wet spot on his chest was more than obvious to all of them and the way it turned bigger with every passing second was more than terrifying.

“Taiga….”

“Leave, now!” Taiga interrupted Myuto before he faced Kentaro and Nikaido. “Please bring them all home safe.” He took another deep breath, trying hard to keep it together as he turned to Ueda who had switched in a state of apparent death the moment the shot fell and Taiga had jumped between Domoto and the boys. Now there was a mask of sorrow on his face, but he wasn’t capable of voicing anything out, but he didn’t need to, because Taiga flashed a shaking, yet bright smile at him and even though it carried so much hurt it also showed him how much love Taiga carried for him in his heart. That one smile was worth more than every moment they had shared together until now.

“Thank you,” Taiga let out in a low voice and before Ueda could reply Taiga shut his eyes and sank to the ground.

Nikaido jolted as Kentaro let out a desperate scream and made an attempt to dash back on stage, but at the last moment Nikaido held him back. Myuto had tried to move as well, but Domoto had pointed the gun at him right away and this time the boy stopped.

“Didn’t he ask you to leave?” Domoto asked way too polite, but this time Sakurai and Takizawa also stepped to the front, revealing two more guns and there were enough members behind them to kill them all at the spot if they didn’t move.

Domoto put his gun away as he moved forward and lifted Taiga up in his arms. There was no complain, not even a single sound from the boy and it made Ueda turn even paler if that was still possible. But there was no time for long talks, because they had overstepped a limit and if they didn’t leave right away it was their end, Domoto had made that clear enough.

It took a tremendous effort for Nikaido, Miyadate and the other members which were still calm enough to think clear to get the other members even close to the doors. Ueda was way too quiet to assure them that he wouldn’t have the breakdown of his life every second now while Kentaro was ready to collapse through the way he overstrained his already badly hurt body through trying to get back to Taiga. When they passed through the theater they also walked passed the group with Saku and for a brief moment the three friends exchanged a look. It was enough to make clear that they'd come back, but it wasn't easing the pain of leaving him behind. They all struggled a lot with the decision to leave like this, but there was nothing they could do for now.

They had to keep fighting all in their own ways, apart or not, hurt or not everything that counted was that they wouldn’t give up. The only thing which wasn’t clear anymore was if they were still fighting for the same goals as before or if this unfortunate event had taken away from them what they had been fighting for so desperately!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay everyone, so here we are finally at the end of this part! Next is REMAINS the final part of the Fight Club series!  
> Any thoughts about this part or also the upcoming plot? Let me know whatever is on your mind :D


End file.
